Tusk admitted "the idea of one EU state, one vision… was an illusion" while European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has conceded "we have too many part-time Europeans."
"The European Union is in a dismal state. Forces on the extremes are winning elections and referendums. If we throw into question the essence of the European project, we're playing with the fate of the next generation, because the 21st century is one of global cooperation and competition between entire regions, not between small countries like mine, Germany," Schulz told Euronews.
Our objective is t return to a normal functioning of #Schengen as soon as possible #EPlenary https://t.co/bDAbuE4CqS pic.twitter.com/RRG0LzsA3d
— DimitrisAvramopoulos (@Avramopoulos) May 11, 2016
"What is a population of 80 million compared to 1.4 billion in China? How can we survive alone in the 21st century? Those who claim that we should bring down Europe and re-nationalize are playing with the security and the future of an entire generation," he said.
Brexit
With just five weeks to go before the UK holds an In-Out referendum on its membership of the EU, on June 23, Schulz said that Britain would lose influence if it left the union.
"While I hope it won't happen, it's not out of the question. But a Brexit would be a disaster both for the European Union and for Britain."
He said that Britain had already negotiated a deal on reforms as a condition of remaining within the EU, but said that the Eurozone crisis would inevitably lead to even more reforms.
"I think one of the problems of the Eurozone is this macro-economic imbalance — in our jargon that means very uneven development within the Eurozone. We must fix that, whether Britain stays or leaves. But I think if it left, that would force the other member states to realize: now is the time to act. And in any case, after June 23, we'll need to discuss the future structure of the European Union," Schulz said.
EU-Turkey Deal
Schulz said the agreement being negotiated between the EU and Turkey to relocate "irregular migrants" from Greece back to Turkey in return for Syrian refugees — on a one-for-one basis — being relocated from Turkey to the EU was by no means a done deal. Turkish citizens would only be granted visa-free access to the Schengen zone, if Turkey met a series of conditions.
"[Last week] I stopped the plan for visa-free travel that the Commission put to the Parliament, because Turkey had in no way met the 72 criteria demanded in exchange. Among them is a reform of anti-terror legislation, a reform of data protection, and just as this man mentions, if Turkey continues on this path and says it won't reform anti-terror laws, then we won't begin these discussions on visa-free travel," he said.
