BERLIN, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU) have concluded their long-standing spat over the establishment of an annual refugee cap on Sunday night.
The leaders of the two conservative sister parties reached a compromise which sets out an objective to keep the number of net arrivals of humanitarian migrants each year to 200,000, whilst stopping short of the fixed annual limit on the number of new asylum seekers demanded by the CSU.
Both the CDU and CSU underlined their position that the refugee crisis of 2015 must not be repeated. The policy package now agreed to avoid the terms "limit" or "cap", however, and endorse a continued guarantee of refugees' rights.
Amongst others, the CDU and CSU further vowed to work towards creating a new legal framework for migration in a prospective "Jamaica" coalition government. The package also includes a commitment by both parties to establish centres to detain refugees and decide on their asylum status, as well maintain national border controls until the European Union's external borders are enforced more effectively.
CSU Secretary General Andreas Scheuer described the outcome as a "good day for the CDU/CSU and a good day for Germany."
The CSU's previous insistence on a fixed annual cap of 200,000 refugee arrivals was seen as a major potential stumbling block to the successful formation of a governing coalition with the CDU, the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Greens (Gruene).
