European Union leaders call for urgent actions on migrant crisis

“I’m entirely in agreement with the proposal from the European Commission on a border guard”, French President Francois Hollande told reporters at the EU summit in Brussels.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker gestures while speaking during a media conference at EU headquarters in Brussels on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015.

“This decrease may, however, also be attributed to other factors”, said the report, seen by Reuters and sent to European Union leaders ahead of a summit on Thursday in Brussels at which they will discuss efforts to stem the migration crisis. The summit also takes place amid a surge in political populism that has linked the migration crisis to terrorism, suggesting that the Schengen passport-free system has jeopardised European security.

Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, awaiting sentencing in a hush-money case, had a stroke during the first week of November and has been hospitalized since then, his attorney said Thursday in a statement.

According to the European Commission’s press release, the new body called European Border and Coast Guard will have 1,000 permanent staff (compared to about 400 at Frontex at the moment) by 2020, including field operatives, and member states will have to put at least 1,500 personnel on standby for deployment within 3 days-being empowered with a mandate to intervene if member states are overwhelmed or are deemed to be failing to safeguard the EU’s external borders.

The Commissionproposed establishing the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, which will be created from the existing border agencyFrontex and the EU member states’ authorities responsible for border management, who will continue to exercise the day-to-day management of the external border.

“Ministers should adopt their position by July, but the leaders’ broad acceptance means that in the future Europe will not remain vulnerable because the Schengen border is insufficiently protected”, Tusk said. However for some, the plan touches at the very heart of national id – a rustic’s right to select who or what can be deployed on its territory – & Greece, Italy, Croatia & Hungary are cautious of it. The proposal is just the beginning of a probably long & divisive legislative process. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she didn’t expect a decision during the Brussels meeting, but she hoped the leaders would edge closer to backing the border agency.

But EU sources said most member states were reluctant to endorse a scheme without evidence that Turkey had successfully curbed the flow of refugees into Europe.

Amnesty global, meanwhile, has warned that the protection of the EU’s external borders must not come at the expense of refugees’ rights.

Between January and November this year, approximately 1.5 million people are estimated to have crossed the EU external borders illegally, placing an unprecedented pressure on Europe’s external borders and forcing EU states to introduce identity checks at some internal EU border crossings. Still, the European Union has planned a 2016 budget for the agency of 238 million euros ($260 million). Some 770,000 migrants have landed in Greece alone, a lot of them arriving from Turkey.