Asylum reforms derailed, as EU looks to north Africa

European Parliament president Antonio Tajani on Thursday described the lack of action as a "gift to populists and europhobes", demanding a change to the consensus approach among EU states on decisions related to the subject.

"We must not be hostages to consensus at all costs: we must vote by majority," he complained.

The European parliament has longed reached their position on the most contentious aspect of the asylum reforms - known as the 'Dublin' regulation - which determines who is responsible for processing applications for international protection.

EU states remain bitterly divided over Dublin and its system to distribute people in need of international protection.

Meanwhile, efforts to tease out an agreement on an handful of other less contentious asylum bills also failed to reach a consensus.

Other big ideas fell flat, including a decision over the summer to set up centres to distribute migrants rescued at sea or having countries rimming the Mediterranean take them in.

"To be honest, we did not achieve much progress since end of June," confirmed Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte.

EU council president Donald Tusk gave migration short shrift, announcing only their determination to further stem irregular flows.

First Egypt, now Morocco

However, Tusk did point to Morocco, making calls for greater cooperation following demands by Spain's prime minister Pedro Sanchez.

Five out of the seven European Commission proposed reforms on asylum are more or less finalised. Dublin, and the asylum procedures regulation, are stuck.

EU leaders want all seven passed as a single package, likely delaying EU-wide reforms.

Last week, EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopolous had pressed EU interior ministers "to make the decisive steps to reach a final agreement" on the five files.

The Austrian EU presidency's bid for a consensus on a principle it defines as "mandatory solidarity", a notion that seeks to spread the responsibility of asylum management across EU states, also failed to muster broad support.

That notion is linked to the Dublin regulation reform. The Austrian idea seeks other ways of contributing to asylum, by for instance, member states offering money in return for not taking in refugees.

Various other iterations of solidarity, presented over the past several EU presidencies, in their effort to break the internal member state deadlock over Dublin, have all also failed.

The blame is largely due to politics, toxic public announcements, and online disinformation in Italy and Hungary, among other EU states, over an exaggerated threat that migrants and asylum seekers pose to the wider public.

One study by the University of Warwick over the summer had found a direct link between violent attacks against migrants in Germany and Facebook postings that portray them as a threat.

The EU leaders have instead opted to quicken up the pace of returning failed asylum seekers to their home countries.

They also agreed "to examine, as a matter of priority," recent Commission proposals on returns, the EU asylum agency, and the EU's border agency, Frontex.

The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland have all denounced an expanded Frontex, fearing a blow to sovereignty and less EU money for other areas like structural funds.

But Sebastian Kurz, Austria's chancellor, told reporters early Thursday that the EU is "on the right path" when it comes to migration.

He said a new approach that eschews the distribution of asylum seekers based on a system of quotas, as proposed in the Dublin reform, has since given way to deepening cooperation with pariah states like Egypt.

Both Kurz and European Council president Donald Tusk had met Egypt's president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as part of a broader plan to keep migrants from leaving the north African shore, ahead of an EU-Egypt summit next February.

But Luxembourg's prime minister Xavier Bettel appeared to play down the Egypt talks, telling reporters that negotiations with Cairo "are less rapid than perhaps expected."