After yesterday’s meeting of European Union interior ministers, heads of state will convene in Brussels to try and find a solution to the impasse in Europe’s migrant crisis. The EU’s interior ministers voted to relocate 120,000 migrants across the continent in a vote passed by a significant majority.

Under the plan, migrants will be moved from Italy, Greece and Hungary to other countries in the EU. Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary voted against accepting mandatory quotas.

But a large majority of EU member states backed the plan, which will take effect over the next two years.

Finland was the only country of the EU's 28 members to abstain from the vote. Poland, who had opposed the proposal, voted for it.

The matter must now be ratified by EU leaders at a second meeting in Brussels on Wednesday.

The EU has, so far, done anything but present a united front in the face of the crisis. How things have changed. Joseph Muscat was once pilloried by Continental media for “stamping his feet” when not one EU nation would show solidarity with Malta when it was one of the main arrival points for sub Saharan migrants.

But it seems that some EU nations have done more than that. Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orban has been accused by many EU leaders of acting inhumanely in dealing with the crisis. He has also been accused of going against the very European ideal which allows free movement between member states by putting up a razor wire fence, first on its border with aspirant Serbia and now with Croatia.

Many nations are still opposing the concept of mandatory burden sharing. Malta has tired of hearing argument and counter argument in this regard. Malta, and later Italy and Greece began putting the feelers out for such as system at least five years ago. Sadly, it has taken the reality of a human wave crashing through the Continent to make other countries realise that this is the only way to go.

Germany believes that it will receive up to one million refugees this year. It is a truly shocking figure. The German political class and its people initially gave a very warm welcome to refugees, but it seems that the seeds of discontent are already starting to sprout as the sheer number of people arriving there continues to increase.

EU leaders must leave this summit with a clear and unanimous action plan. Failure to come up with a common stand might see the beginning of the end of Europe’s unique experiment with democracy. This was a first. The EU normally only adopts a plan after reaching a unanimous decision, not through a majority vote. Could we be headed into a whole new era of EU-decision making, where a show of hands around the table is the position adopted? Whatever the case may be, EU leaders must now ratify the vote and come up with a longer term plan. What we are experiencing now is just the beginning, not the end game.