Ireland is unlikely to participate in the new European Border and Coast Guard agency, Minister for European Affairs Dara Murphy indicated yesterday, as EU leaders gathered for the first day of a two-day summit dominated by the refugee crisis and Britain’s impending EU referendum.

Speaking in Brussels, Mr Murphy said that while it was too early to say definitively if Ireland would participate, he predicted that involvement was unlikely.

“Firstly, we need to see if the new agency will be an evolution of Frontex or a new agency,” he said. “Its main objective is to protect the Schengen external borders, of which Ireland is not a part.”

As non-Schengen members, Ireland and Britain are not members of the agency, though both countries have participated in its precursor, Frontex.

Earlier this week, the European Commission unveiled plans for an enhanced border coast guard, its latest attempt to respond to the migration crisis that has seen an estimated 1.5 million people enter the European Union this year.

A number of member states, including Poland and Greece, are concerned that the new agency could impinge on the sovereignty of national states, if EU border guards are deployed to patrol national borders.

Backing plan

“The external borders must be protected. I entirely agree with the European Commission’s proposal for a border force,” French president François Hollande said on arrival. “We want Europe to protect as best as possible its external borders and at the same time the right of asylum to those who are victims of war.”

While European Council president Donald Tusk said he welcomed “with great satisfaction” the commission’s proposal, he said the more controversial elements – including when a deployment could be triggered – still had to be worked out.

“Border protection is and should be in the first place the domain of national states,” Mr Tusk said. “This is why we have to analyse the most controversial idea of the European Border Guard entering the territory of sovereign states.”

But he warned there was no easy alternative to a European coast guard.

“If we reject the commission’s proposal,” he said, “we will have to find another, but I’m afraid, an equally painful solution.”

As EU leaders pledged to speed up the implementation of measures already agreed to deal with the refugee crisis, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the status quo in relation to the refugee crisis “cannot continue”. He predicted a “contentious discussion” on the topic.

“The extent of migration moving through Nigeria, Somalia, into Libya, and on the other side from Afghanistan and Iraq, the root cause of which is the war in Syria, the issues around Turkey, migration through Europe, what’s going to be done about it, is an issue for this discussion,” he said.

Small numbers

Addressing leaders at the start of the summit, European Parliament president Martin Schulz said the rate of progress on the scheme was “shameful.”.

“According to the commission, only 14 member states have made available 3,346 places, and less than 200 persons have actually been relocated,” he said. “This figure is shameful, and I call on all member states to shoulder their responsibility.”