BERLIN, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Several leading business associations in Germany on Friday expressed their support for Chancellor Angela Merkel's (CDU) vision of a European solution to migrant policy.
"The German economy is convinced that unilateral national policies do more harm than good," the joint appeal read, in a thinly-veiled attack on the alternate position adopted by interior minister Horst Seehofer (CSU).
The document was signed by leaders from the Confederation of Germany (BDI), the German Employers' Association (BDA), the Association of the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) and the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH).
The appeal urged the CDU and CSU coalition partners to overcome their cabinet divisions on asylum policy which were "harming Germany's reputation".
The business leaders wrote that the country needed a "stable and resolute government which works together constructively and calmly with its European partners".
The appeal warned that both Germany and Europe would suffer if the European Union's largest economy turned inward.
Whether with regards to migration, digitalization, or trade conflicts, the bloc was currently confronted with a range of challenges which could only be overcome if national governments showed a "political desire for forward-facing European solutions".
The business associations argued that Europeans owed their life in democracy and prosperity to the EU's founding ideas of peace, market economics and social justice. As a consequence, it would be a fatal mistake to put the "European project at risk" by advocating for narrow-minded nationalisms again.
The CDU and CSU have reached a widely-publicized impasse over the question of whether or not to turn back asylum seekers at the German border who were already registered in another Schengen area country.
As outlined in his "migration master plan", Seehofer wants to refuse asylum access to German territory if they have already formally entered the Schengen zone via another country. By contrast, Merkel has warned of a resulting domino effect as Germany's neighbors rush to shutter their internal Schengen borders.
Merkel is currently attending an EU summit in Brussels where she is urgently seeking to resolve the escalating cabinet conflict by finding a new European solution on asylum policy.
Following discussions which continued throughout the entirety of Thursday night, the chancellor was able to secure backing for a preliminary agreement on a new joint policy regime for irregular immigration form non-EU countries.
