The flood of migrants pouring into Europe means all EU member states must step up to meet the mounting crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday.
Merkel called for mandatory quotas to be set for each country to take a share of displaced people, many from war-torn Syria.
The crisis has to be solved in the spirit of European solidarity, Merkel said, speaking at a Berlin press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven.
Sweden and Germany are taking on a high measure of responsibility, Merkel said, and a common European asylum policy has to be put into practice.
She also said that the current international treaty setting out countries' responsibility for taking in refugees was no longer up to date, and that neither Greece nor Italy could take in all those crossing the Mediterranean Sea in search of sanctuary.
What is needed are mandatory quotas, which must be divided fairly, Merkel said. At the moment, Europe is far from that fair division, she added.
Some countries, particularly in Eastern Europe, are strongly opposed to any proposal for mandatory quotas, arguing that they don't have the necessary resources.
Merkel's government has said Germany expects to receive some 800,000 asylum applications this year. The country could take 500,000 refugees each year for "several years," the vice chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, has said,
Thousands of predominantly Syrian refugees have arrived in Germany over the past few days, passing through Hungary and Austria after making an overland journey north through the Balkans.
(CNN)
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