Faced with the ongoing migrant crisis, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned European Union (EU) leaders to protect the politico-trading bloc’s external borders or risk a return to nationalism. Chancellor Merkel was addressing a joint press conference in Rome, alongside the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, when she made the comments. She called on member states to defend the EU’s borders “from the Mediterranean to the North Pole” in solidarity with one another. In Mrs. Merkel’s opinion, abandoning cooperation between member states by withdrawing the mutual support which promotes the effective protection of Italian, Greek, Maltese and Cypriot borders would cause parts of the EU to relapse into nationalism, reports Die Welt. Vowing to do “everything to solve the problem of migration” she still warned against closing internal EU borders, as allowing countries to adopt that approach would threaten the freedom of movement so cherished by her. Mrs Merkel went on to say that ramped-up border controls, of the sort under consideration in Austria in response to the onging migrant crisis, raise questions as to whether the passport-free Schengen zone can survive. Mr. Renzi specifically criticised the preparation for possible controls on the main crossing between Italy and Austria. Those moves are being considered in light of the closure to