A meeting late on Thursday brought together Merkel, leader of the centrist Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, leader of the leftist Social Democrats (SPD), and Horst Seehofer, prime minister of Bavaria and leader of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU).

During a discussion with her coalition partner, Chancellor Angela Merkel reached a compromise to set up migrant processing centers in Germany.
ATHENS-Germany said Thursday it would speed up the repatriation of rejected asylum seekers as new figures showed the country inching closer to the million-migrant mark and European Union forecasts showed even more people seeking refuge in Europe next year.
The aim is for applications to be processed within a week – rather than the several months they usually take – and for possible appeals to be handled in another two weeks.
In a country where the idea of holding people in large facilities evokes memories of the Nazi era, the debate over “transit zones” has strained the coalition as it struggles to reassure a skeptical public it has a grip on the migrant crisis.
Her series of meetings at her Berlin office began with the two other party leaders in her coalition and was to continue with 16 premiers of the German states and possibly segue back to more three-party talks lasting into the night. In addition, refugees would be asked to pay part of the expenses for the German courses provided upon entering the country. The proposed quota plan would relocate the majority of asylum-seekers to Germany, France, Spain, Poland and the Netherlands.
The new policy, according to the joint statement, calls for the creation of five special centers for refugees. In addition, a database will be set up so that different government agencies could get a better overview of the new arrivals.
The procedure for hearing asylum requests would be accelerated, with cases being heard within one week.
Germany anticipates to receive at least 800,000 asylum seekers in 2015.
Volker Kauder, leader of Merkel’s conservatives in parliament, said the main thing was to filter out people deemed to have no solid claim to asylum – those who come from countries deemed as safe.
In addition, the German government will further promote social housing and accelerate the construction of refugee shelters, in a bid to meet the growing need for refugee homes.