Europe hunts for cohesive policy on refugees as thousands more head north

Bitterly divided European leaders resumed their hunt for a credible response to the continent's worst refugee crisis since World War II this week, with a series of meetings and an emergency summit scheduled as thousands of people fleeing war continue to push north through the mainland. 

The 28-member bloc has struggled to find a unified response to the crisis, which has tested many of its newer members in the East and led to the construction of physical barriers on some borders — putting at risk the EU’s policy of free travel among members.

On Monday, the foreign ministers of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Latvia with their counterpart from Luxembourg, which holds the EU presidency, met to address disagreement over how to share the burden of some 120,000 refugees as required through a plan put forward by the European Commission (EC).

But no agreement was reached on Monday. After speaking with the foreign ministers Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said "we still have 20 hours ... to come to a conclusion. We know we have to find a European solution."

The EC is trying to persuade EU member states to also accept a quota system that would evenly share out the responsibility of accommodating asylum seekers, but it faces stiff resistance from some eastern European member states, notably those meeting today.

“Each country must be able to decide how many migrants it can receive. Imposing a quota would be, in my view, against European principles,” Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna said Sunday.

Also on Monday, Hungary's parliament authorized the government to deploy the army to help handle incoming refugees, granting the military the right to use non-lethal force. It passed a law saying the army could use rubber bullets, pyrotechnical devices, tear gas grenades or net guns, according to the text posted on parliament's website. 

On Sunday Hungary —  a landlocked nation of 10 million that has registered more than 220,000 asylum-seekers this year — erected a steel gate and fence posts at a border crossing with Croatia, the EU's newest member state. Seemingly overwhelmed by an influx of some 25,000 migrants in recent days, Croatia has been sending them north by bus and train to Hungary, which has waved them on to Austria. Around 10,700 migrants walked into Austria from Hungary on Sunday, some 200 more than on Saturday.

The refugees, most of them fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, has led to bitter recriminations between European governments while the temporary closure of national borders has undermined one of the most tangible achievements of the Union.

EU interior ministers will again try to break the deadlock on Tuesday ahead of an emergency summit on Wednesday. French President Francois Hollande has said he wants the interior ministers to address the most difficult aspects of the migration crisis by Tuesday so that EU leaders could focus exclusively on financing at Wednesday's summit.

“I really wish all these issues to be solved by the ministers' reunion,” Hollande said on Sunday during a state visit to Morocco.

Switzerland committed on Friday to take in 1,500 asylum seekers under the EU quota system if it is approved.

Germany, which expects to admit 800,000 refugees this year, gave a nod to the Swiss model last week when Chancellor Angela Merkel's federal government agreed with German regional administrations on distributing refugees across the country and creating a network of centers to facilitate the task.

But on Sunday, striking a more skeptical tone on migration than in previous weeks, Merkel also warned that Germany could not shelter those who were moving for economic reasons rather than to flee war or persecution.

“We are a big country. We are a strong country. But to make out as if we alone can solve all the social problems of the world would not be realistic,” she said. 

European Parliament President Martin Schulz says he fears Wednesday's summit will instead end in discord.

Schulz met Monday with French President Hollande in Paris to prepare for the discussions and try to “avoid widening differences and gaps that are existing already” between the EU countries.

He says the European council must raise money for Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey because “there's no money anymore to help people” in refugee camps in those nations

International donors promised $7.9 billion to help Syrian refugees but have paid only $2.8 billion.

Al Jazeera and wire services