In Eastern Europe, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia meanwhile oppose taking in more migrants and believe nation states are the future of the European Union, not a centralised super-state.
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They added they would “ensure full control of our external borders”.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, one of the most critical voices on the issue, said there should be no more “lawmaking tricks” from EU institutions, such as the European Parliament’s move to require member states to accept refugee resettlement quotas.
But former Liberal Democrat leader Lord (Menzies) Campbell said there was nothing the United Kingdom can do after Brexit to protect North Atlantic Treaty Organisation from the potentially damaging effect of an EU army because it will not be able to veto its creation from outside the union.
The leaders are not expected to discuss in any detail their looming divorce negotiations with Britain, which are likely to hang over the bloc for years, sapping resources, attention and threatening further divisions.
“We want to have very good, very close relation with the UK”, Mr Juncker told a news conference, but Europe was “sticking its position”, he said, adding: “I can not see any possibility of compromising on that issue”.
EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the member states agreed to award 108 million euros ($121 million) in emergency funding to Bulgaria for border management at one of the most porous borders with Turkey.
Stepping into the fray, France and Germany, the EU’s power couple, have prepared plans for a “more active” defense policy to restore confidence shaken by terror attacks, the migrant crisis and globalization.
While central and east European countries are prioritising security threats and the refugee crisis, others have different ideas.
The focus of the French-German initiative, however, lies in security within the European Union, especially as relates to the fight against terrorism, but with defense issues as well.
In a sign of how hard the split may prove, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, holder of the EU’s rotating presidency, said the European Union should ensure it doesn’t “damage our interests” by granting too many concessions to the British. The Hungarian politician said he would try to change the self-destructive and naive migration policies of the EU.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, though, insisted such internal quarrels have always been there.
He said: “I can’t give joint press conference with Merkel and Hollande”. On migration “the usual things were said again”, he said.
We should deliver more practical and tangible decisions in the next months.
Perhaps most important of all, Slovakia is one of the European Union members in Eastern Europe along with Hungary that has consistently objected to Brussels’ plan to redistribute mostly Muslim asylum seekers across European Union territory as a way to ease the burden on Greece and Italy, which are the gateways for most migrants entering Europe.
Earlier in the day in the gilded halls of Bratislava castle, European Union leaders discussed what had gone wrong with the EU.
All talk of unity evaporated when Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, refused to do a press conference with his German and French counterparts because of the failure to do more to help the continent’s ailing southern economies.
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“She declared that it was nearly impossible to trigger article 50 this year but it’s quite likely that they will be ready, maybe in January, maybe in February, next year”, said Tusk, according to The Guardian.
