European interior ministers have agreed that countries should be allowed to close their borders when they deem it necessary. That puts them at odds with Brussels, which wants to have the final say in such decisions.

European Union interior ministers have reached an agreement that would allow countries in the border-free Schengen zone to re-introduce border controls in emergencies that are deemed to threaten a country's security.

A key change that the agreement reached at a meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday would bring is that for the first time, an influx of immigrants would be defined as just such an emergency.

The interior ministers also agreed that member states themselves should still be the ones to make such decisions.

However this is far from a done deal, as the changes must be passed by the European Parliament for them to come into force and the 27-member bloc's legislative body has already indicated it will oppose them in their current form.