UPDATE 1-Germany eyes breakthrough in EU migration dispute this year

(Refiles to fix typos in bullet points)
* Germany hopes to end lengthy EU deadlock on migration
* EU executive to unveil asylum reform plan in September
* IOM says mobility key to COVID-19 economic recovery

By Gabriela Baczynska
July 7 (Reuters) - Germany said on Tuesday it wants European
Union nations to overcome a deadlock on how to handle refugees
and migrants this year, weighing in on a bruising dispute that
has divided the 27-member bloc for years.
With Berlin holding the EU's rotating presidency until the
end of the year, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said he wanted
to get "at least a political agreement on the most important
issues" to reform the bloc's asylum system that collapsed in
2015 during a major increase in migrant arrivals to Europe.
"It's always (just) a small number of member states willing
to admit migrants and this in unworthy of the EU," he said.
"If they are entitled to international protection, we should
expect solidarity from all EU member states to admit these
people. You cannot solve this question by leaving it to Italy,
Spain, Malta or Greece."
That goes to the heart of the dispute in the EU, where
ex-communist, eastern countries including Poland and Hungary
have dug in their heels, refusing to host any of the people
fleeing wars and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.
The EU has turned to tightening its borders and asylum laws,
slashing the number of arrivals from more than one million in
2015 to 123,000 last year, according to U.N. data.
Seehofer said he hoped the reluctant countries would now
reconsider, though a Polish diplomat stressed any legal
obligation to host the new arrivals was a no-go for Warsaw.
Brussels is due to propose an overhaul of the EU's troubled
asylum rules after the 27 national leaders agree on a mass
economic stimulus to recover from the coronavirus pandemic -
another thorny theme requiring unanimity of all EU countries.
"Human mobility and cross-border trade... will be essential
to recover from the COVID-19 engendered crisis," the U.N.
migration agency said in a statement on Tuesday, calling on the
EU to ensure safe and legal migration, including for job
openings.