BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — The migration crisis in the European Union has become a serious challenge to the integrity of the bloc, Russia's EU envoy Vladimir Chizhov said.
Answering the question on whether the migration crisis in Europe has become a serious challenge for the bloc as one unit, Chizhov told RIA Novosti, "It has already become it."
The envoy noted that the migration crisis followed a eurozone crisis, which the European Union had coped with.
The European Union is currently struggling to manage a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people leaving conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa for Europe.
Over 1.83 million illegal border crossings were detected by the EU border agency Frontex in 2015.
In mid-January, President of the European Council Donald Tusk said that the European Union had two months to bring the unprecedented migration under control to avoid the collapse of the Schengen Area.
