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Kurangkata: The Truth of Emptiness - A manual on the meaning of Emptiness.Parliamentary negotiations set to resume in Strasbourg today, ahead of a showdown over giving German asylum seekers a better deal. In March, when the Greek asylum seeker crisis was in full swing, Angela Merkel's government tried to restrict the number of asylum seekers allowed into Germany, sparking a firestorm of protest from other EU states, who argue that the new approach will send refugees on boats and undermine the EU's asylum policy.
Negotiations now in full swing
After many months of negotiations, including regular sittings in Berlin and Brussels, European leaders have agreed to try again to get to a compromise over the issue, which has proved the most divisive and contentious of all the issues debated in the EU's long-stalled negotiations on a broader reform treaty.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, with French President Francois Hollande, talks on Germany's refugees policy
Earlier this week, leaders of the EU's 28 member states signed off on an EU-wide quota system to share out the burden of taking in refugees across Europe. The new system, which will have to be signed off on by all member states, will probably not take effect until September at the earliest.
But the agreement on the quota system is not the only point on the table, with negotiations on a more flexible and permanent European asylum system continuing throughout the summer.
For the first time, German asylum seekers who apply for asylum in other European states will be able to receive benefits while their cases are being processed, and to travel freely throughout the EU for the duration of their application.
One of the main stumbling blocks to an agreement has been the issue of whether German authorities should only allow refugees to claim asylum in Germany if it is certain that they will have a realistic chance of eventually getting asylum in Germany.
The issue was particularly relevant in March, when the humanitarian crisis in Greece and the arrival of large numbers of asylum seekers in Germany prompted Mrs Merkel to announce a strict new policy.
She ordered that all refugees who arrived in Germany should be made to return to the first EU state they entered, and banned new asylum seekers from Germany until their cases were processed.
The
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