The EU’s laws have exacerbated this situation. The “open borders” policy, which is regarded as a sacred principle by the founding nations, is now shunting the problem from one country to another. Instead of having to deal with a mass influx onto its own territory, a state can simply encourage (or fail to prevent, which is tantamount to the same thing) the horde to move on to the next state. And each of those states, with some justification, can complain that they should not have to carry the burden of this invasion alone, especially when their economies – notably those of Greece and Italy – are in desperate straits. After all, what is the EU – that great supranational defender of democracy and human rights – supposed to exist for, if not to share the strain of precisely this kind of problem within its community of nations? But instead of the urgent meetings of EU heads of state to formulate a European strategy (which you might have been inclined to expect given the EU obsession with meetings and consensus), we get the odd phone conversation – apparently conducted in tones of utmost diplomatic courtesy – between David Cameron and François Hollande.