EU has two months to tackle migrant crisis: Tusk

The EU has no more than two months to gain control of the migration crisis engulfing the 28-nation bloc, European Council President Donald Tusk says.

EU council President, Polish Donald Tusk gives a press conference at the European Council in Brussels, Belgium, 18 January 2016. Source: AAP

European Council President Donald Tusk has issued a stark warning that the European Union has "no more than two months" to tackle the migration crisis or else face the collapse of its passport-free Schengen zone.

Tusk was speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday amid growing frustration in Brussels and Germany - the bloc's biggest economy and main destination for migrants arriving in Europe - that the EU seems unable to get its act together on its worst migration crisis since the Second World War.

"We have no more than two months to get things under control," Tusk, who chairs the summits of EU leaders, said.

"The March European Council (summit) will be the last moment to see if our strategy works. If it doesn't, we will face grave consequences such as the collapse of Schengen."

The European Council two-day summit from March 17 will focus mainly on the migrant crisis.

The Schengen system has already been suspended in some countries like Denmark, Germany and Sweden, which have introduced controls at their borders in order to stem the flow of migrant and refugee arrivals.

Tusk said that EU governments have failed to deliver on commitments to curb the flow of refugees and migrants reaching Europe, with more than one million arrivals last year and figures showing little sign of decreasing over the winter months.

A landmark deal with Turkey, which is meant to keep more people on its soil in exchange for funding for migrants and reviving its long-stalled EU membership talks, "was still to bear fruit", Tusk said.

On creating the bloc's joint border guard - another measure to address the migration crisis - Tusk said he expected a political agreement between EU leaders when they meet for a summit in June.

He said the EU would "fail as a political project" if it could not control its external borders properly.

The crisis has exposed bitter disputes among EU countries, with some blaming Greece and Italy for letting too many people in.

Athens and Rome say Germany's initial open-door policy encouraged more arrivals than anyone could cope with.