Europe struggles to make migrant deal as President Higgins warns failure to tackle crisis would be ‘catastrophic’

EU leaders struggled to fit together the jigsaw pieces of an agreement with Turkey on the migrant crisis as President Michael D Higgins warned that failure to respond would be “catastrophic”.

In an unusually blunt foray into the political sphere, President Higgins said the crisis required “political and moral leadership that is courageous and farsighted”, based on human rights and accepting moral and ethical obligations.

However, in Brussels, as EU leaders settled in for a long night of tortured negotiations, there was a chasm between what Europe was willing to give and Turkey was ready to accept.