German Interior Minister comments on EU migration policy

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Wednesday it was important to "reset" the EU's migration rules after the bloc announced a major policy overhaul on the matter.

The EU's revamped rules were announced earlier in the day in the hope that more countries will be prepared to share responsibility for people landing on Europe's shores.

Speaking at a news conference in Berlin, Seehofer said that Germany wanted to "reach a political agreement" on the issue before its Presidency of the EU Council expired at the end of 2020.

The arrival in Europe in 2015 of well over 1 million migrants, most of them refugees fleeing conflict in Syria, sparked one of the EU's biggest political crises.

The bloc, which now numbers 27 nations following Britain's departure earlier this year, has been riven by disputes over who should take responsibility for them, and whether every member state, including those with limited or no sea access, should be obliged to help.

Nations including Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, have been notoriously reluctant to accept refugees.

Asked about Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's recent rejection of a compulsory distribution of migrants, Seehofer said that the comment made him "really sad."

The entry of unauthorised migrants into the world's biggest trading bloc has dwindled to a relative trickle in recent years.

Some 140,000 people arrived last year, compared to around 2 million migrants who entered legally, the European Commission says.