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Roundup: EU leaders call for urgent actions on migrants crisis

Xinhua, December 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

The European Union (EU) leaders called for urgent actions to cope with the migrant crisis late Thursday and agreed to adopt position on a controversial border guard package in six months.

"Over the past months, the European Council has developed a strategy aimed at stemming the unprecedented migratory flows Europe is facing," said the leaders in a statement after their first-phase meeting at a summit in Brussels.

"Implementation is insufficient and has to be sped up," said the statement, saying the relocation of migrants was lagging behind and urging faster moves from member states.

Europe is experiencing the worst migrant crisis since the aftermath of the Second World War as millions of thousands of refugees or migrants, mainly from war-torn Syria, flood into the continent.

The EU leaders have agreed to relocate 160,000 refugees but only a few hundred people have been transferred by now.

Another outcome of today's meeting was that leaders agreed to quickly review the proposals unveiled two days ago by the European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, to establish a new border and coast guard body which enables Brussels to swiftly response to its border protection.

The proposal also ask member states to cede sovereign rights as, under urgent situation, it may grant the new agency, namely "European Border and Coast Guard," to make deployment to the grounds to protect the bloc's borders without members states' consent.

The statement said the council should rapidly examine the proposals and should adopt its position on the "European Border and Coast Guard" under the Netherlands Presidency, which will be the next six months.

"If we reject the Commission's proposal, we will have to find another, but I'm afraid, an equally painful solution," European Council President Tusk said earlier on the day.

The leaders also stressed that for the integrity of Schengen to be safeguarded, "it is indispensable to regain control over the external borders."

Leaders of the 28-country EU gathered here for a scheduled two-day summit which was dominated by the migrant crisis and Britain's referendum talks. Endit