MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The council's president convened a session of the heads of the 28 member states a day after EU interior and justice ministers had agreed to resettle 120,000 refugees throughout the bloc.
"Today we are talking about millions of potential refugees trying to reach Europe, not thousands," Tusk said ahead of an informal summit in Brussels.
Tusk said the "most urgent" task was to regain control its external border.
"Conflicts in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Iraq, will not end anytime soon," he said, adding that his projected figures are underpinned by the 8 million internally displaced people and 4 million accepted by Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.
The biggest refugee crisis since World War II has beset Europe, as it grapples to deal with the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing violence and poverty in North Africa and the Middle East, arriving at its borders.