No EU quotas needed for Ukraine refugees: German minister

The European Union needs a distribution system based "on solidarity," not fixed quotas to shelter people fleeing the war in Ukraine, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Monday, reported dpa.

Speaking before a special EU interior ministers meeting, Faeser said the EU has already achieved a common understanding and Germany does not want to jeopardize this "by sticking rigidly to quotas."

EU interior ministers are meeting to consider proposals from the European Commission to further coordinate the bloc's response to the influx of refugees from Ukraine escaping the Russian invasion.

This includes plans to centralize the EU's registration systems for refugees, agree further financial support for struggling EU member states and devise strategies to protect against human trafficking.

Faeser's call for a solidarity-based approach comes after she urged the commission to do more to help fairly distribute Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion and to offer more EU financial assistance.

In a letter seen by dpa, Faeser along with Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski raised the idea of a fixed payout of €1,000 for every refugee taken in and also rallied the EU executive branch to play a more active role to spread arrivals throughout the EU.

It is obvious that the two states' resources and reception capacities will not be sufficient to cope with the growing influx of people, Faeser and Kaminski wrote in the letter dated Friday.

The UN Refugee Agency reports 3.8 million people have now fled the war in Ukraine. The German Interior Ministry said Germany now hosts 267,000 people.

Poland is now sheltering 2.3 million people, according to a tweet from Polish border authorities.