'Running out of time', EU warns

Ministers prepare up to two-year suspension of Schengen rules

The European Union on Monday edged closer to accepting that its Schengen open-borders area may be suspended for up to two years if it fails in the next few weeks to curb the influx of migrants from the Middle East and Africa.

Shorter-term dispensations for border controls end in May. EU migration ministers meeting in Amsterdam decided they may be extended for two years - an unprecedented extension - because the migrant crisis probably will not be brought under control by then, according to the Dutch migration minister, who chaired the meeting.