Turkey has to make “decisive efforts” to help stem the flow of migrants leaving its coast to reach Greece, EU leaders said as they pledged to implement proposals agreed last December.

The conclusions reached on migration at the EU summit were “not groundbreaking” according to a senior government official with the more significant decision being another EU-Turkey summit in March.

Translating the Brussels-speak used in the final statement into everyday language, effectively means that EU leaders agreed to continue implementing measures already agreed last year, which have been slow to get off the ground.

EU leaders insisted the flows of migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey remained “much too high” despite steps taken by Turkey to implement the action plan agreed last year.

Turkey was expected to receive €3 billion in EU assistance to accommodate Syrian refugees and help in their processing on Turkish soil.

Migration has proved a divisive issue as member states have taken unilateral decisions in the face of the largest humanitarian crisis hitting Europe since World War II. Almost a million Syrian refugees have made it into Europe or are on the cusp of attempting the perilous journey in the Aegean Sea. Hundreds have died and only yesterday a Frontex boat rescued 900 people.

EU leaders agreed that the objective of any response to the migration crisis must be to “rapidly stem the flows”, protect the external borders, reduce illegal migration and safeguard the integrity of the Schengen area. They also re-affirmed that asylum seekers had no right to choose the member state in which they sought asylum.

Addressing the humanitarian situation of migrants along the Western Balkans route was included as a sub-point in the eight-point write-up, with EU leaders calling for “urgent action using all available EU and national means” to alleviate the difficulties.

“It is necessary to now put in place the capacity for the EU to provide humanitarian assistance internally,” the conclusions read, welcoming the European Commission’s “intention” to make concrete proposals “as soon as possible”.

Migration has been eclipsed at the summit by the UK-EU talks and British demands for a more flexible arrangement for their country’s permanence in the EU to be safeguarded.