By SAM McNEIL and RENATA BRITO, Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — European leaders will call for a toughening of migration policies on Wednesday in a move critics say bends to pressure from far-right groups and harms basic human rights protections for vulnerable people.

Ministers from 27 EU member nations are meeting in Brussels to discuss countering migrant smuggling, with a keynote speech by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. In Strasbourg, France, representatives from the Council of Europe — 46 countries from Iceland to Azerbaijan — are expected to debate making deporting migrants easier for signatories to key treaties.

Denmark was part of a nine-nation attempt last year to curtail the power of the European Court of Human Rights, the independent legal arm of the Cou

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