German Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended the planned amendment to European asylum rules in the face of criticism of the amendment, saying some countries should stop pointing fingers at others and stop shirking responsibility.
Schulz made the remarks while attending a conference of the German Evangelical Church in Nuremberg on Saturday, where he added: "That is why the agreement was that we should establish a mechanism for solidarity."
Schulz said he believed a solidarity system for distributing refugees within Europe should be established "finally, finally" and promised faster asylum procedures and more digitization of these procedures.
The German chancellor said a person who could not stay in Europe must be "able" to be repatriated.
EU interior ministers overwhelmingly approved a sweeping overhaul of the European asylum system at a meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday.
Amendments
The amendment includes significantly tightening the treatment of migrants who have no chances to stay in the bloc, and plans include housing people coming from countries considered safe in reception centers similar to detention, and these centers will be subject to tight control in the future, where within 12 weeks it will be determined whether the asylum applicant has a chance to stay or not, in normal cases, and if it turns out that he has no chance, he will be returned to his country immediately.
The German government had wanted to ensure that minors under the age of 18 and families with minor children were exempt from the measures, but was forced to accept the possibility that this would be possible in order to make the deal a success.
The European Parliament is likely to make changes, have a say on the reforms and negotiate in the coming months with EU representatives on the draft reforms.