EU leaders pledge to increase capacity at reception centres

EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Sunday pledged to increase capacity at reception centres along the Western Balkans route and send extra police forces to Slovenia within a week as part of a 17-point action plan agreed overnight in Brussels.

Leaders of a number of central and east European countries and Balkan states met for an emergency summit to respond to the migration crisis which has seen more than 700,000 people flee to Europe this year.

Under the plan agreed last night, the European Commission pledged to create 100,000 additional new spaces at reception centres in frontline countries with the help of the UN refugee agency UNHCR including 50,000 in Greece. In addition 400 police officers are to be sent to Slovenia within the next week to help with border control.

In exchange for the wide range of measures agreed last night, countries promised to “discourage the movement of refugees or migrants to the border of another country.”

“A policy of waving through refugees without informing neighbouring countries is not acceptable,” a joint statement after the meeting said.

Tensions have been rising between EU member states amid suspicions that some front-line countries receiving refugees are allowing people to pass through to other member states without registering them, as required under the Dublin convention.

Slovenia has found itself at the epicentre of the refugee crisis in recent weeks as Hungary has closed its border with Serbia, forcing thousands of refugees to re-route over the Croatian-Slovenian border. The crisis has caused escalating tensions between the two former Yugoslav countries, as thousands of refugees gather close to the border, many camping out in the open air. Up to 60,000 refugees are estimated to have arrived in the country of two million people within the last week alone. Slovenia's prime minister Miro Cerar warned on Sunday that the EU risked "falling apart" if a comprehensive solution was not found to the crisis.

Under the agreement last night, countries agreed to make “maximum use” of biometric data, including fingerprinting, to register migrants.

Contact points will also be established between countries to facilitate the exchange of information on a daily basis, in a bid to increase solidarity between member states.

Speaking after the meeting the German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: "Europe must show it is a continent of values, a continent of solidarity ... This is a building block, but we need to take many further steps."

Last night's meeting was the latest sign of a shift in policy at EU level towards the migration crisis, as leaders focus on border control and deportation as a way of managing the unprecedented flow of refugees entering the European Union.

Germany in particular has been forced to alter its policy as the country struggles to cope with hundreds of thousands of refugees entering the country. While maintaining that people entitled to refugee status will be granted asylum, Berlin is toughening its approach to migrants coming from so-called 'safe countries' in the Balkan area such as Albania and Serbia, warning that those not entitled to asylum will be returned.

In a signal of the hardening stance at EU level, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, a leading proponent of greater burden-sharing across the European Union, told German newspaper Bild over the weekend that the challenge for the EU was to "slow down the flow of migration" and bring Europe's external border under control.

“We must also make it clear that people who arrive at our borders who are not looking for international protection have no right to enter the EU.”

Sunday’s summit, which was called at the behest of Ms Merkel, is largely seen as an attempt by the EU to exert some control on the refugee crisis before the onset of winter, with human rights organisations already warning that refugees are risking increasingly dangerous seas and falling temperatures in a bid to reach Europe.

There is also growing disquiet in national capitals about developments in Syria, where Russian's attempts to shore up the Assad regime through co-ordinated aerial bombardments, has already succeeded in turning the direction of the civil war in Assad's favour. There are increasing fears that, should Aleppo fall, a new wave of Syrian refugees could flee for Europe, possibly numbering more than 300,000.

Under the proposal being discussed on Sunday, the European Commission was considering sending 400 extra border guards to Slovenia and increasing maritime resources to help Greece deal with the continuing flow of migrants coming to Europe through the Aegean Sea.

But as part of the solution, the Commission is pushing frontline member states to ensure that those not entitled to asylum are refused entry, rather than wave through migrants to other member states such as Germany and Austria.