LUXEMBOURG: EU countries conceded Tuesday they were a long way from breaking a two-year deadlock over reforming the bloc’s asylum rules by this month’s deadline given a “harder political climate” following right-wing election gains in Italy and other countries.

Key European Union ministers and officials meeting in Luxembourg were critical of or even opposed to Bulgaria’s new compromise plan on how to close an east-west rift over the reforms before a June 28-29 summit in Brussels.

Bulgaria holds the current 6-month EU rotating presidency.

“The current state of negotiations is not acceptable,” Stephan Mayer, a senior German interior ministry official, told reporters as he arrived for the talks. “We are not ready to accept it (the plan).”—AFP