German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned Friday that the European Union still faces significant challenges in managing migration, despite a decline in arrivals and the adoption of new asylum rules aimed at overhauling the bloc's migration system.

"By now almost every head of state and government in the European Union sees it that way: We have a massive problem that places a considerable burden on our societies," Merz said at the EU summit in Brussels.

He said he expressly agreed with this view. "Irregular migration is one of the biggest problems we have in Europe," he added.

Merz commented on the issue on the sidelines of a debate about the lessons from the migration crisis in Ceuta.

At the end of July, an estimated 80,000 migrants had entered the Spanish exclave from Morocco. According to the government in Madrid, most of the arrivals returned voluntarily to Morocco within a very short time. At least 140 people died trying to reach Ceuta. Aid organizations put the figure significantly higher.

Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker demanded at the EU summit that there should be more legal options to respond to mass arrivals like those in Ceuta, in particular a right not to have to accept asylum applications under such circumstances.

Greece's government is also pushing to create the legal basis for this option. Greece has suspended the examination of asylum applications twice in the past, most recently in 2025 for three months because of a sharp rise in boat arrivals from Libya to Crete and Gavdos.

The EU migration rules do not actually provide for a full suspension of the right to apply for asylum. The principle of non-refoulement states that a state may not turn back or deport a person to a country where they face persecution, torture or another treatment that violates human rights.