German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande have called for a “unified” response the EU’s worst refugee since World War II.<br /><br /> “We must put in place a unified system for the right to asylum,” Hollande said in a brief statement ahead of talks, calling the influx from the world’s crisis zones “an exceptional situation that will last for some time”.<br /><br /> Merkel said Germany and France also wanted all EU members to conform with existing refugee policies governing the bloc “as quickly as possible”.<br /><br /> The German leader said she and Hollande were also in agreement that the EU must draw up a “unified” list of safe countries of origin to which people arriving in the bloc seeking asylum protection would be quickly returned.<br /><br /> Germany has been pushing for such a policy given the large portion of its asylum-seekers — 40 percent — coming from the Balkans.<br /><br /> Berlin argues that to help those from war zones such as Syria, Iraq and some regions of Africa, it needs to be able to f
