Europe is at a crossroads and its very survival is at doubt. Even before Friday night’s terrorist outrages in Paris which forced the French government to close its borders, the open door policy of the Schengen Agreement guaranteeing freedom of movement, one of the basic tenets of the European Union, was under threat. At a crisis summit in Malta called to address the current immigration crisis which has seen Sweden re-introduce strict border controls and Slovenia construct a massive razor-wire fence to protect its borders European Council president Donald Tusk admitted that the EU had reached crisis point.

“Saving Schengen is a race against time and we are determined to win that race. Without effective control on our external borders, the Schengen rules will not survive,” Tusk said at the conclusion of the summit. “Time is running out.”

In response to complaints from African leaders about the arbitrary nature of imposing stricter border controls the Malta summit reached a compromise solution which will retain the Schengen rules which were introduced in 1985 and which allows anyone to travel across borders without passports or visas. The UK and Ireland are not part of the agreement.

But even though a compromise has been stitched together deep divisions remain within the EU about whether or not it can survive this latest assault on its territorial integrity. Hungary and Germany are at loggerheads over the number of immigrants being allowed to enter Europe as a result of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open door policy - the EU's border control agency Frontex has admitted that a record 1.2 million illegal crossings have already been made this year – and the UK has made it clear that control of immigration will be one of the reforms it wants during its forthcoming negotiations for continued membership.

“Clearly you need to have either a system with external borders or a system with internal borders,” said UK prime minister David Cameron last week. “You can't have borders that don't work at either level.”

All over Europe, prompted by the steady influx of refugees through the Balkans, European countries have been battening down the hatched and suspending the Schengen agreement. Denmark has suspended its rail link to Germany. Germany and Hungary have closed their borders with Austria. In turn Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and the Netherlands have brought back border restrictions - and in addition to imposing stricter immigration controls Sweden ended the week by sealing several remote northern border crossings with Norway.

The Malta summit on border controls has revealed deep fault lines in the structure of the EU in response to the immigration crisis and there are now real fears that a wave of anti-EU feeling across Europe will give comfort to the growing number of Eurosceptic parties.

In Poland last month the centre-right Law and Justice Party swept to power largely as a result of the support of a younger generation and it has embraced policies which are distinctly anti-EU. Portugal has followed suit with a centre-right coalition whose junior partners have advocated withdrawal from the EU and Nato, while Slovenia’s leader Miro Cerar claimed last week that that unless Europe finds a solution to the migrant crisis “it is the end of the EU as such”.

While such apocalyptic visions are unlikely to be fulfilled there is a feeling across Europe that the EU is at a historic crossroads and that a period of introspection will be needed to introduce the reforms that are clearly needed for its survival. In an outspoken speech in Prague on Friday night Frans Timmermans, vice president of the European Commission, suggested that without the EU the continent would return to a darker and more dangerous period.

“There is an alternative to everything. I believe in European cooperation because I have seen all the other forms in history that have been tried to help European peoples get on better,” he said. “With the exception of this one, all the other forms lead to war. So let’s stick to this one.”