EU is at critical point in its existence, Merkel says

European Union leaders gathered in Bratislava on Friday to attempt to negotiate the fallout from Britain's impending exit discussions, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the bloc as having reached a critical point.

27 of the EU's member states met in the capital of Slovakia on Wednesday to discuss how they would approach the issue with the one which was not present, the UK.

Merkel did not downplay the seriousness of the situation that Europe now finds itself in.

"We need solutions for Europe and we are in a critical situation," Merkel said as she arrived at the gathering.

"You can't solve all Europe's problems in one summit," she added. "What we have to do is show in our deeds we can do things better in the realms of security and fighting terrorism, and in the field of defence."

Pressure is mounting among several prominent member states, after Luxembourg's foreign minister attacked Hungary, saying they should be thrown out for their treatment of asylum seekers. The viability of the European project has been propelled into chaos following Britain's shock vote to elope from the union.

French president Francois Hollande issued a rallying cry to other members on his arrival to the conference.

"Either we move in the direction of disintegration, of dilution, or we work together to inject new momentum, we relaunch the European project," he said.

Before the summit, president of the European Council Donald Tusk challenged those at the meeting to be "brutally honest" about the upcoming difficulties that they would face.

"We haven’t come to Bratislava to comfort each other or even worse to deny the real challenges we face in this particular moment in the history of our community after the vote in the UK," Tusk admitted.

A series of meetings were held in Bratislava as the EU gets to grip with the reality that discussions with Britain are going to happen in the near future, most likely at the beginning of 2017.