Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick has branded the EU as being impotent on the migration crisis and branded the bloc leader's words "hollow".
He also criticised the European Commission for failing to come up with a credible plan to intercept, turn back or repatriate migrants.
Jenrick, who quit his cabinet job earlier this month, said most member states lack the ambition to act.
The Conservative MP for Newark said that the EU deal announced on Wednesday to tighten borders and share the burden of housing asylum seekers is "not worth the paper it’s written on."
EU accused of being 'impotent on migrant crisis' as VDL's words branded 'hollow'
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Jenrick said: "The commission’s rhetorical commitment to end the supply of dangerous small boat equipment rings hollow when in practice it refuses to provide legal cover for individual states to seize these consignments, despite sustained engagement from myself and other senior government ministers."
"We have made progress bilaterally to seize equipment destined for the Channel with allies like Bulgaria, but with no thanks to the EU."
The former minister cited Poland’s closely guarded border fence and Greece’s controversial turn-backs of migrant boats at sea as being two individual states that have been left to deal with illegal migration.
He told the Telegraph that while it was essential to continue working with the EU on this issue, member states were often left acting "unilaterally".
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A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel
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Jenrick added: "If all our near neighbours could enforce their borders with the same zeal as Poland, we would face a much-reduced challenge. Time and again, the EU has proven geopolitically impotent.
"While we must continue to engage and co-operate with Brussels wherever we can, and I have travelled to more countries than anyone, seeking to build partnerships on illegal migration, we must confront the reality that nation states must act unilaterally when the vital national interest of border security is on the line."
He said that, unless a harder approach was taken by the EU, more far-right politicians such as Holland’s Geert Wilders would come to power "on the back of public fury at lax border controls."
Jenrick said: "His success is merely a foretaste of what is to come. The great irony is that by failing to do what is necessary they are bringing about the political conditions for the failure of the entire European project."
Britain has been lobbying the commission to give approval for states to use health and safety laws to seize the boats as being unseaworthy.
This is currently in breach of EU regulations.
Government insiders told The Telegraph the commission could issue an edict sanctioning the move.
This would protect against legal action by those involved in the trade.
