Just ahead of a summit of EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday, there's little consensus among the bloc's members about how best to shape its migration and asylum policy. At the express request of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, leaders are expected to spend several hours discussing the issue at their meeting.

German government sources say the chancellor is still hoping to find a Europe-wide strategy and is pushing for at least some of the reforms scheduled for 2026 to be brought forward. That's something other EU countries, such as Spain, have been demanding for months. Some members are calling for more asylum hearings on the EU's external borders, faster deportations of migrants whose asylum applications are rejected, and deals with countries of origin and countries of transit. But it's far from clear which, if any, of these it would even be possible to expedite.

At last week's meeting of EU Interior Ministers there were renewed calls for rules on deportations to be tightened. The ministers want migrants whose asylum applications are deemed to have no prospect of success to be returned more quickly to their countries of origin. They also want to make it easier to stop asylum-seekers at internal EU borders, such as Germany's. Migrants are supposed to apply for asylum in the EU country they first arrive in. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced she plans to issue a proposal for new guidelines shortly.

At least three EU member states object to the bloc's current approach. And two of them — Hungary and........

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