File Photo of German Vice Chancellor, Economy and Energy Minister Sigmar Gabriel. (AFP)
Germany's Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel Monday blamed "Europe's inaction" in the refugee crisis for having stretched his country's capacity to host asylum-seekers to its limit.
His remarks came as EU interior ministers were due to meet Monday afternoon in Brussels over the distribution of 160,000 refugees within the 28-member bloc.
"Europe's inaction in the refugee crisis had driven German in the meanwhile to the limit of its capacity," Gabriel told the Tagesspiegel newspaper.
The problem is "not the number of refugees but the rapidity at which they arrived", which complicated the work of regional states and German cities, he told the Berlin daily.
Gabriel, who is also economy minister, urged Europe to examine how it can "quickly help in an efficient way the countries of origins of these refugees".
He suggested "immediate aid of 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion)" put forward by Germany and Europe for the biggest refugee camps, such as those in Lebanon and Jordan, for schools, food and lodgings.
Germany is expecting to receive 800,000 asylum-seekers in 2015, four times as many as a year ago and far more than any other European country.
On Sunday, after admitting that its capacity had been stretched to the limit, Berlin reintroduced identity checks on people travelling within the passport-free Schengen zone, and essentially announced an end to its open-doors policy to Syrians.