The Latest: EU to unveil plans for border agency

11:50 a.m. The EU's executive Commission is unveiling a proposal for a European border and coast guard agency aimed at plugging gaps in migration policy and poor management of the bloc's external borders.

Add caption

The new agency would monitor the EU's borders with the outside world and have the right to send guards, ships, planes or other assets when countries are unable or unwilling to enforce border laws. The plan is contentious because it requires countries to surrender some of their sovereignty - something many have viscerally opposed so far - and it is unclear whether the scheme will win enough backing.
Greece and Italy, but also Croatia, have proved unable to register even half of the tens of thousands of migrants who have entered their territories since July.

10:35 a.m.
The European Union's border control agency says the number of migrants arriving in Greece fell sharply in November, the first month-on-month drop in a year that has seen record numbers of asylum-seekers arrive in Europe.
Frontex cited worsening weather and more restrictive border-control policies along the Western Balkan route as the apparent reasons for the drop.
Some 108,000 people arrived in Greece in November, down from 150,000 in October.
The Warsaw-based agency said 715,000 migrants arrived on the Greek islands through the end of November, 16 times more than in the same period last year.
Most of the migrants are Syrians, followed by Afghans and Iraqis.
Frontex said the number of migrants crossing into Italy from Libya decreased for the fourth straight month.