With Hungary passing laws apparently in breach of the Geneva Convention to prevent refugees crossing its borders and Croatia resorting to the even cruder method of lining its frontiers with razor wire, optimism about the European response to the refugee crisis is diminishing.

Common cause had been brought about by shocking images of toddlers Aylan and Galip Kurdi dead on a beach in Turkey, and the scores more dying in lorries and boats as they bid desperately for a better life, but this is rapidly being replaced by something more like Fortress Europe.

The countries feeling the greatest pressure as refugees from Syria and elsewhere arrive on their shores deserve no credit for their actions, which are harsh, but all nations in the European Union share the blame, as the lofty ideals espoused by member countries prove hard to realise in practise.

Nothing about this crisis has been sudden, but a failure to plan or to agree a strategy has left member governments apparently frozen in the headlights of trucks, trains and ferries bearing thousands of displaced people towards us, challenging our principles and our convictions.

Germany too has now started temporary border controls. But it least has welcomed hundreds of thousands of the refugees who have made their way to Europe. Britain will not accept even one - David Cameron's pledge to welcome more applies only to those who have stayed in refugee camps in the Middle East.

The intention behind this is to discourage refugees from making the dangerous journey towards Europe and instead get them to come via official resettlement schemes. But expecting people to do this is unrealistic when the UNHCR, which runs the camps, is underfunded, to the extent it has warned it cannot continue to feed refugees and will have to shut camps. Is it any wonder the residents choose to move on?

The inability of Europe's leaders to conceive a solution is damning. A crisis summit on Wednesday must see them do better. The obvious solution is a more equitable way for all member countries, including Britain, to offer space to a fair share of refugees.

Compulsory quotas may be difficult to agree or enforce, but western policy helped create this problem. Britain and America may be uneasy about Russian moves to send troops to support President Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian government. But it increasingly looks as if we may have backed the wrong side in viewing Assad's removal as essential to resolving the conflict in Syria.

It isn't clear how the aftermath of this conflict was envisaged, but that is a familiar pattern now. There was no coherent strategy for restoring order in Iraq after the removal of Saddam Hussein, no apparent plan for Libya post-Gaddafi.

This is about the lives of families fleeing death and destruction, about real people. They are not an inconvenience to be shut out with barbed wire.

Solutions are far from obvious but too many countries are turning their backs and acting to protect what they see as their own interests. Our leaders must find collective responses, that all can sign up to, otherwise Europe faces an existential question - is it a union, or is it not?