In Würzburg, today, the special representative for refugees of the German Bishops Conference (Dbk), monsignor Stefan Heße, archbishop of Hamburg, will be chairing a summit with about 100 delegates of charity organisations, volunteer associations, Caritas agencies and diocesan commissions for refugees. The items on the agenda are the encouragement of volunteering and the qualification of workers in the assistance of refugees. The meeting, during which the 11-member expert task force recently appointed by mgr. Heße to work in close contact with him will officially start working, will have to draw up some guidelines and statements of mission and to coordinate the work of the German Church’s refugee aids, in their different forms. The archbishop criticised the Federal Government’s plans to reduce family reunions for some refugees, pointing out that the “principle of family unity” is instead extremely important in the acceptance processes. Today’s meeting focuses on the need instead to “further speed up asylum procedures”, providing newcomers with the right legal assistance so that their applications may be reviewed “carefully and without prejudice”: that’s why, Heße went on, “we follow political developments in this area with great attention”.