German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has defended the planned reform of EU asylum rules. She predicted a decline in the number of refugees in Germany.
For the first time, there will be asylum procedures at the EU's external borders. If countries refuse to take in people, they are supposed to pay a penalty payment of 20,000 euros per migrant into a fund managed by Brussels. The CDU interior ministers Armin Schuster (Saxony) and Peter Beuth (Hesse) had previously called for temporary controls at EU internal borders.