Thomas de Maiziere

Brussels has said it hopes the Western Balkan states will join the bloc by 2025.

European interior ministers convened in Brussels on Thursday to discuss how the bloc will coordinate its latest security and migration policies with Western Balkan states.

With Bulgaria taking its turn in the rotating presidency, Sofia hosted the first informal meeting of EU interior ministers to launch talks on one of the most contentious issues within the bloc - the overhaul of Europe's system for granting asylum, New Europe reported.

The German government wants to encourage rejected asylum seekers to voluntarily return to their home countries with a cash incentive, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told newspaper Bild am Sonntag on Sunday, Deutsche Welle reported. 

The Danish government has extended control of the southern border with Germany until May 12th next year, citing migration as a key concern, The Local writes. 

Temporary controls were implemented on the border in January 2016 and have remained in place since.

Germany's Federal Minister for the Interior, Thomas de Maiziere sees no chance of a quick accession of countries such as Bulgaria and Romania, to the Schengen area, the daily newspaper Die Berliner Zeitung reports.

Germany's immigration authority has rejected more than 5,000 asylum applications filed by Turkish citizens, local media reported on Sept. 13. 

German daily Tagesspiegel reported that the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) had ruled on 8,547 asylum applications in 2017 filed by Turkish citizens, and rejected 5,040 of them.        

Turkey and Germany resolved an ongoing dispute over the former's alleged investigation on German companies for its links with the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ) after the Turkish Interior Minister explained to his German counterpart the problem occurred due to a communication problem with Interpol.

Around 100 refugees protested on Wednesday outside the German Embassy in Athens. They complained about the limit Berlin has placed on the number of refugees who can move to Germany to be reunited with their families. It emerged in May that Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere reduced the number of asylum-seeker family members allowed into the country from Greece to 70 a month.

A German court jailed a Turkish national for membership with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on July 13 amid accusations from Ankara that Berlin was protecting the militants.

Germany should brace for further attacks given growing numbers of potential Islamist militants, top security officials warned on Tuesday, vowing to step up efforts to prosecute, convict and deport suspects.