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EU unhinged: Thursday’s summit faces 2 of its biggest crises

Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, right, welcomes European Council President Donald Tusk at Maximos Mansion in Athens Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016. After decades of often unbridled expansion and increasing prosperity, the once-robust European Union is this week looking at its biggest challenge - crumbling from within, Tusk said. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, right, welcomes European Council President Donald Tusk at Maximos Mansion in Athens Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016. After decades of often unbridled expansion and increasing prosperity, the once-robust European Union is this week looking at its biggest challenge - crumbling from within, Tusk said. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, right, welcomes European Council President Donald Tusk at Maximos Mansion in Athens Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016. After decades of often unbridled expansion and increasing prosperity, the once-robust European Union is this week looking at its biggest challenge - crumbling from within, Tusk said. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

By Associated Press 4 min read

BRUSSELS (AP) – To listen to harried European Union chief Donald Tusk is to realize that the leaders of the 28 member nations are facing the prospect of an unhinged EU if this week summit goes badly wrong.

Negotiations with Britain over EU reforms to give Prime Minister David Cameron a better shot at winning a referendum to stay an EU member are far from finished as they head into the final stretch.

At the same time, the migrant crisis is quickly turning into a seminal test of unity, pitting east against west and many against Greece.

“The migratory crisis we are currently witnessing is testing our union to its limits,” Tusk said Tuesday as he was seeking compromise on both issues ahead of Thursday’s summit.

“There is an extra mile we will have to walk to reach an agreement,” Tusk said in Prague Tuesday, near the end of a five-nation whirlwind tour that was to end in Berlin barely 24 hours after it started in Paris.