French police officers checks a person's papers at a border post on the French-Spanish border | Iroz Gaizka/AFP/Getty Images EU pushes ‘worst-case scenario’ to stem migrant crisis Schengen faces collapse as countries seek to extend internal border controls.

AMSTERDAM — The future of the Schengen zone of passport-free travel is in serious doubt, as EU countries Monday prepared for the worst and sought permission to extend internal border controls for up to two years.

After a meeting of EU interior ministers in Amsterdam, Klaas Dijkhoff, the migration minister of the Netherlands, said they “invited the [European] Commission to prepare the legal and practical basis for the continuance of temporary border measures."

The announcement came after several days in which EU countries said more needed to be done to control the flow of refugees across European borders. Germany and Austria stepped up pressure on Greece, for example, warning that it could be excluded from the Schengen zone unless it did a better job of controlling its external borders.

Dijkhoff said the procedure sought Monday, known as Schengen's Article 26, was not intended to "push a country" out of the agreement.

But Etienne Schneider, Luxembourg’s deputy prime minister, said rows between member countries were unhelpful. “I am tired of all this finger pointing, there’s no need for it,” he told POLITICO. “The countries that point the finger at Greece are not showing their hand when we are talking about redistributing refugees.”

The process announced Monday will allow the extension of internal border controls for a maximum of two years for those countries that ask for it, including Germany and Austria, which reintroduced them in September.

So far, six countries in the Schengen group have reintroduced internal border controls to cope with the influx of refugees and the related security concerns: France, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany and Austria. Berlin and Vienna could be the first ones to extend the controls since they were the first ones to reintroduce them. For those two countries, the legal terms for the reintroduction of internal controls will expire in May, hence the need for a possible extension.

The process will not be quick, according to an official: Once the Commission has presented its opinion on extending the controls, then the Council can issue a recommendation to national governments.

The decision to extend the controls is considered as a last resort.

“The measure is a worst-case scenario in case the measure is needed,” said one diplomat, stressing that in the meantime countries will go ahead with the implementation of current measures in the EU migration strategy, such as relocation of asylum-seekers and the joint action plan with Turkey.

The measure will be taken “if we cannot obtain a quick implementation of the agenda,” said French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve in a press conference.

Relocation woes

The ministers also discussed the future of the EU's troubled refugee relocation scheme as well as a proposal to set up an EU border and coast guard.

On Monday, 63 refugees were relocated from Greece to France and Finland, bringing the total of those moved to 414 — out of the 160,000 who were supposed to be relocated under the scheme.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU migration commissioner, said the time for excuses was over, and that in “four or five weeks” all 11 "hotspots" for processing asylum applications in Greece and Italy will be operational. But he warned that “from the moment hotspots start working, nobody will have an argument not to take part in the [refugee relocation] scheme.”

There are two main problems with the relocation scheme, EU officials say: the reluctance of member countries to fulfill their pledges and that many refugees want to go to a particular country, not be sent anywhere in the bloc. The official added that some member countries are also being picky about who they want to take — “Families are much easier to relocate.”

One major point of contention is the failure of the EU-Turkey plan to stem the flow of migrants into Europe, which officials say has a knock-on effect throughout Europe. “In the short term, the target is to get more out of it [the Turkey plan],” Dijkhoff said after Monday's talks

The path to an EU border and coast guard does not look straightforward either. Ministers have discussed it but Spain, Greece and Malta have raised concerns, including about having EU guards deployed on their territory without their permission. Some ministers also want the Council, not the Commission, to have the final say on the scheme.

Despite this, the Dutch presidency of the Council of Ministers wants a final decision on the coast guard plan by the end of June.

Luxembourg's Schneider said it could be "difficult" to hit that target. “I have the feeling that all the ministers are aware of what we are talking and about the urgency: everybody knows that if we don’t solve the problems now, the EU as whole will have a problem and the EU as whole might collapse.”