European Parliament Head Hopes Refugee Agreement Will Be Reached Tuesday

European Parliament President Martin Schulz said Monday he hoped an agreement on resettling hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa within the EU member states would be reached Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On Tuesday, EU interior ministers will hold a meeting on the EU migrant crisis, to be followed by an extraordinary summit of the European Council on Wednesday.

"I am expecting an agreement tomorrow. Finally, the agreement on resettling 160,000 refugees will be reached," Schulz told the German Deutschlandradio broadcaster.

Schulz said this agreement could pave the way to providing financial assistance to countries, such as Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, that have received millions of refugees.

According to Schulz, it is unlikely that EU member states will agree on mandatory quotas for resettling refugees for each country. The countries are expected to complete quotas on a voluntary basis.

The European Union is struggling to cope with a migrant crisis as hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants flee violence and poverty in their home countries.

Over 500,000 migrants and refugees have arrived in the European Union since the beginning of 2015, according to the European Commission.