Paris: French President Francois Hollande warned on Thursday that a failure to resolve the refugee crisis would put the borderless Schengen zone "in danger".
The EU is scrambling to resolve the continent's worst refugee crisis since World War II, which has seen Germany, Austria and Slovakia reimpose border checks in a blow to the Schengen agreement, which allows borderless travel between some member states.
In an interview with AFP Hollande said Schengen would be under threat if there were no "registration centres to distinguish refugees from economic migrants and ensure the sharing out of asylum seekers."
"We will be obliged to re-establish border posts, controls ... and it will be the end of Schengen in the sense of a controlled space that allows freedom of movement," said the president.
Hollande said the real challenge would come if member states refused to apply EU-imposed quotas on how many refugees they should accept.
"By being even more restrictive, the risk would be to reduce the Schengen zone to a few countries. That is where Europe could be in danger."
The EU is scrambling to resolve the continent's worst refugee crisis since World War II, which has seen Germany, Austria and Slovakia reimpose border checks in a blow to the Schengen agreement, which allows borderless travel between some member states.
In an interview with AFP Hollande said Schengen would be under threat if there were no "registration centres to distinguish refugees from economic migrants and ensure the sharing out of asylum seekers."
"We will be obliged to re-establish border posts, controls ... and it will be the end of Schengen in the sense of a controlled space that allows freedom of movement," said the president.
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Hollande said the real challenge would come if member states refused to apply EU-imposed quotas on how many refugees they should accept.
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"By being even more restrictive, the risk would be to reduce the Schengen zone to a few countries. That is where Europe could be in danger."
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