EU still divided as leaders meet for crisis summit

EU leaders gathered today in Brussels for an emergency summit in hopes of devising a concrete plan on how to tighten borders and develop more long-term solutions to deal with the refugee crisis wreaking havoc on the 28-nation bloc. Still failing to present a united front, four states, including Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania — voted against Tuesday’s plan to relocate 120,000 asylum-seekers to other member states over the next two years.

Those who don’t share our values, those who don’t even want to respect those principles, need to start asking themselves questions about their place in the European Union.

French President Francois Hollande

Some proposals pitched at the summit included deploying more personnel to patrol EU borders, donating at least 1 billion euros to international aid agencies to help refugees in camps near conflict zones like Syria and boosting support to Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan to help them cope with the millions fleeing the fighting in Syria. As the leaders headed to Brussels, a further 5,000 migrants were converging on the Austrian border with Hungary, police there said.

We prevented the collapse of the banks, and now we have to prevent the collapse of humanity in Europe.

Werner Faymann, Austria’s Chancellor

Europe EU divided