The European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on Thursday in Zagreb that he supports the idea of establishing a safe zone in the north of Syria.

His support for the proposal comes after the latest escalation of the conflict in Syria which prompted around a million refugees to leave the region and stoke fears of a new migrant crisis on Europe’s borders.

After attending a meeting of EU’s defence ministers in Zagreb, Borrell told reporters that establishing a safe zone in the Syrian city of Idlib would be a “good idea.”

Idlib, in northwestern Syria, has recently become the centre of intense fighting between Turkish forces and their allies against the Russian-backed Syrian government.

“We must create a buffer zone, to avoid any more attacks,” Borrell told reporters, adding that this is his personal opinion and not an official position of the European Union, which is expected to discuss the proposal on Friday in a meeting of EU’s foreign ministers.

Borell’s comments came after Germany’s Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that she was in favour of creating safe zones in Idlib, and the Dutch Foreign Minister, Stef Blok, called for a no-fly zone over Idlib in order to “stop the humanitarian catastrophe”.