Details of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's plan to solve her government's migration crisis - and avoid a possible break-up of her coalition - were revealed on Saturday in a letter to the leaders of her two coalition partners.
The letter said that Merkel had secured agreements with 14 countries for the rapid return of asylum seekers trying to enter Germany who first registered in those countries.
The countries listed in the letter are Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary Belgium, France, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden.
The prime ministers of Czech Republic and Hungary - two of the fiercest critics of Merkel's decision to admit migrants - vehemently denied they that agreed to any such measures.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said that "Germany did not approach us, and in this moment I would not ratify such an agreement ... We are not planning negotiations. There is no reason to negotiate. We decisively reject this."
A German government spokesman later said Merkel "regretfully" accepted Prague's decision, insisting however that "the Cezch side had expressed willingness to make a deal for better cooperation in the return [of migrants]" at an EU summit in Brussels.
Hungarian leader Viktor Orban referred to the deal as "fake news." Speaking to state news agency MTI, he said "there was no such agreement."
The number of migrants arriving in Germany who are returned to where they first registered currently stands at 15 per cent. With the agreements revealed in the letter - even without the participation of Prague and Budapest - this number should rise significantly.
Germany already announced a similar agreement with Greece and Spain earlier this week.
According to the plan, larger collection centres in Germany - so-called "anchor centres" - would be used to house migrants while their asylum requests are considered and unsuccessful applicants would be deported from there.
Also laid out in the letter is a plan to send German police by the end of August to help strengthen the EU's external border in Bulgaria in order to reduce the number of migrants entering the passport-free Schengen zone.
In 2017, the letter said, tens of thousands of asylum seekers had a corresponding entry in the EU's visa information system.
With stricter allocation procedures, "we could substantially reduce visa abuse and with it the number of asylum seekers in Germany," it said.
In addition, the European border protection agency Frontex should be strengthened in Greece along the borders with Macedonia and Albania.
"We must also be prepared to help support Slovenia and Croatia with border control if necessary," the chancellor said.
The rapid-return agreements in particular are meant to satisfy German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, the leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the more conservative sister party of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU).
The Bavaria-based CSU, and Seehofer in particular, have been holding Merkel's feet to the fire on asylum policy, including a threat to close Germany's southern border to large groups of migrants without Merkel's consent.
Merkel was scheduled to host Seehofer in the chancellery late Saturday for an emergency meeting to try to convince him that her efforts to stop the influx in coordination with other EU countries makes border closure redundant.
The results of the meeting were not expected to be made public before a series of meetings of the parties' respective leadership teams on Sunday.
A split between her conservative CDU and the CSU, a political alliance that has existed since 1949, would rob Merkel's three-way coalition with the centre-left SPD of its parliamentary majority.
A broader EU asylum deal, reached after marathon negotiations between EU leaders in Brussels, foresees the creation of "controlled" processing centres, firstly in Europe, and then later in North Africa.
On Saturday, Merkel denied some interpretations of the deal by CSU members that it gave them carte blanche to go ahead with unilateral border closures.
The summit had called on EU members to come up with "internal" legal and administrative measures against secondary migration with the EU, a Berlin spokesman said.
Those measures include better surveillance of outbound mobility and residency requirements for asylum seekers in external border nations.
"Unilateral measures at the expense of other countries are not what is meant," said the spokesman, adding that they are neither "internal," nor do they fulfill the summit's desire for cooperation.
