BERLIN (AFP) - The European Union is under threat from rising populism and nationalism fuelled by a record migrant influx, European Parliament president Martin Schulz warned on Tuesday (Dec 8).

"The European Union is in danger. No one can say whether the EU will still exist in this form in 10 years," Schulz said in an interview with German newspaper Die Welt.

In the EU there were now "forces at work to drive us apart," said the German politician.

"We must avoid this because the consequences would be dramatic."

The alternative to the EU would be a "Europe of nationalism, a Europe of borders and walls" - a formula that had led the continent into "catastrophe" repeatedly in the past, Schulz said.

Germany is on course to take in one million asylum seekers this year, half of them from Syria.

Schulz voiced concern about a lack of solidarity by many EU members in hosting the refugees, and about moves by several eastern European countries to build new barriers.

He said "the retreat of many governments into nation-based thinking is fatal".

"No country alone can handle challenges such as migration, climate change, terrorism, trade and international crime. We can only do it together, as the EU."