Refugees and migrants arrive on dinghies at the Greek island of Lesbos, after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey on October 2, 2015 | ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty EU will push to tighten border controls A European coast guard is one of the options on the table.

LUXEMBOURG — EU countries will push to increase protection of the bloc's external borders, as part of a new phase in Europe's effort to stem the flow of refugees from the Middle East.

Interior ministers meeting in Luxembourg discussed the border protection proposals, and agreed new measures to improve the deportation process for migrants who arrive in Europe without being eligible for asylum protection.

Under the new agreement the EU’s border control agency, Frontex, will create a Return Office and has asked countries to deploy an additional 670 people to handle the deportations, said the meeting’s chairman, Luxembourg immigration minister Jean Asselborn, in a press conference.

Asselborn added that no figure has been tabled yet on how many illegal migrants will be returned.

“Around ten joint return flights [to return migrants] will be organized in October,” said Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European commissioner for migration.

The border control measures are more delicate politically as they press national sovereignty buttons.

“We are discussing shared management and not common management,” a source in the Luxembourg EU presidency said. Asselborn said that a “majority of countries” was in favor of the proposal.

The migration issue remains at the forefront of the EU agenda, as evidenced by speeches in the European Parliament Wednesday by French President François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel that focused predominantly on the crisis.

“Europe needs to put in place European coast guard and European border guard service," Hollande said. "We must define a common asylum regime for the European Union in all of its dimensions.”

During Thursday’s meeting French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve made official a French proposal that envisages, over the long term, setting up an EU border guard body, diplomatic sources said.

Member states would contribute personnel to the EU border control agency and decisions on when to intervene would be taken by “EU authorities in coordination with member states,” the sources said.

“Of course the member states maintain their sovereignty on the control of their borders,” Cazeneuve told journalists before the start of the meeting. “But there needs to be a mechanism which permits Frontex to act according to its competences when there are migratory phenomena which might breach the Schengen area.”

The border control proposals will be debated at next week’s summit of EU leaders. The Commission would then be expected to announce its project for shared border control by the end of the year.

But “France was so far the only country that has put forward a proposal,” a EU official said.

The border control issue is crucial because it is seen as a prerequisite to getting approval for a permanent relocation scheme for refugees.

"If we manage to fix the problem of external border control then we will also be able to deal with a permanent relocation mechanism which for the moment would have very little chance to be approved,” said one diplomat, referring to Commission's plans to set up a permanent system after approving two emergency relocations for 160,000 refugees.

Also at the meeting, ministers were updated on the development of the EU's first relocation of 40,000 refugees. On Friday the first group of refugees will be relocated from Italy to Sweden, the EU's migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said on Tuesday. It will involve Eritrean refugees, the Commission explained, although there is not a clear figure yet of many refugees will take part.

Minister also discussed the issue of funding of the migration plans. Two EU funds “will support substantially the return activities of the member states which are planning to devote more than €800 million to return in their national programs in 2014-2020," the conclusions read.

The €800 million figure refers to money that countries have already allocated for returns, and that they expect to be refunded by the EU funds, explained a diplomat. The money is part of a package of €4.4 billion under discussion for the 2014-2020 period to mainly cover expenses on border control management. The funds would be targeted especially at Italy, Spain, France and Greece.

Countries are also discussing setting up a link between migration and new development programs by including a clause on readmission that will force third countries to readmit their citizens expelled by the EU as illegal migrants. It is what diplomats call the “more for more” principle.

“The Council welcomes the introduction of the more-for-more principle as a way to increase the EU’s and Member States’ leverage,” the conclusions state.

Some diplomats are also circulating the idea of a “less for less” principle, which would involve imposing sanctions on reluctant countries. But that was rejected by Asselborn. “I do not think it would resolve things,” he said.

Among the items in the final draft there is also the issue of detention for migrants not eligible for protection. “All measures must be taken to ensure irregular migrants’ effective return, including use of detention as a legitimate measure of last resort,” the conclusions state.

Later Thursday in Luxembourg ministers will hold a special Western Balkans Conference, which was initially designed especially to address the needs of Hungary in dealing with the flow of refugees. The conference will be attended by EU home affairs and foreign affairs ministers, along with their counterparts from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and other countries hosting the majority of the refugees fleeing from Syria.