Border checks proposed for two years as leaders told they have as little as six weeks to save Schengen zone

benefits in favour of an “emergency brake” mechanism.

The Government would be able to ask the European Commission to halt an influx if it was putting a major strain on the public purse, under plans discussed with Mr Cameron by Bohuslav Sobotka, the Czech prime minister,

EU leaders have warned there is now just six to eight weeks to save the Schengen zone from a chaotic collapse as hundreds of thousands of migrants in Turkey prepare for spring crossings.

Six states have imposed border checks – Germany, France, Sweden, Austria, Denmark and Norway – under emergency six-month powers that will expire in May.

In talks chaired by Mark Rutte, the Dutch premier, interior ministers will discuss an emergency clause in the 30year-old Schengen Agreement that would allow border checks to be imposed for two years in the case of “serious persistent deficiencies” in the external border.

“This possibility exists, it is there and the Commission is prepared to use it if need be,” said Natasha Bertaud, a spokesman for Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president.

“We’re not yet in that situation,” Ms Bertaud added. “But interior ministers will on Monday in Amsterdam have the opportunity to discuss and it’s on the agenda what steps should be taken.”

They will also discuss Mr Juncker’s proposal for an EU border force equipped with ocean-going vessels, helicopters, drones and the power to enter a country without its government’s consent.

No final decision will be taken until a summit of EU leaders in March.

In a further blow to the Schengen zone, Mr Valls said France would keep its state of emergency, which has included border checks, until the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant network is destroyed. It was imposed in the wake of the Paris attacks in November which killed 130 people. He said that without proper border controls to turn away refugees, the 60-year old European project could disintegrate.

“If Europe can’t protect its own borders, it’s the very idea of Europe that could be thrown into doubt,” he told the BBC. “The first message we need to send now is with the greatest of firm- ness is to say that we will not welcome all the refugees in Europe. Because a message that says come, you will be welcome, provokes major shifts.” Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, said a fence should be erected on the Macedonian and Bulgarian borders with Greece to curb the inflow of migrants.

The EU border agency Frontex said yesterday that around 108,000 migrants arrived in Greece in December.

That compares with 150,000 arrivals in November and puts the total for Greece and Italy at 1.04 million in 2015, or five times as many as in 2014.

Austria has announced that it will limit the number of people allowed to apply for asylum to 1.5 per cent of its population over the next four years, or 37,500. The move piles more pressure on Angela Merkel, who is facing intense demands from her conservative allies to follow suit.

‘The first message we need to send with the greatest of firmness is that we will not welcome all the refugees’