Preserving Schengen Area Among Key Challenges for EU Today - Tusk

European Council President Donald Tusk said that the next six weeks will be key for the future of the European Union, european leaders will meet twice over this period to decide the fate of Schengen area.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Preserving Schengen area and keeping Europe without internal borders will be the key challenges for the European Union in coming weeks, European Council President Donald Tusk said Wednesday.

"Preserving Schengen in the worst migratory crisis Europe has ever faced, is unfortunately, only one of several very tough challenges we have to deal with. It is no exaggeration to say that the next six weeks will be key for the future of the European Union. European leaders will meet twice over this period," Tusk said addressing the Committee of the Regions.

According to Tusk, another important issue is to prevent the UK's exit from the bloc. However, Tusk expressed confidence that it was possible to find consensus to satisfy London's demands for its future stay in the European Union.

Europe is struggling to find a solution to a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The EU border agency Frontex detected over 1.83 million illegal border crossings in 2015, in contrast to some 283,000 in 2014.

In response to the growing number of migrants reaching their territories, some European states, such as Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovenia have built fences, while other states, including Austria and Germany, have toughened their migration policies and introduced border controls.