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The prime minister expressed his satisfaction in a tweet after
the summit ended, without going into detail.
When leaving the summit, his German counterpart Angela Merkel
told reporters that "we are all responsible for all issues."
"That means it can not be that some care about the
so-called primary migration, while the others care about the secondary
migration," she said, alluding to overstretched frontline states like
Italy.
The EU should offer the second tranche of €3 billion to Turkey
under the cash-for-repatriation deal, and continue to provide support to the
Lybian coast guard, Merkel stressed.
The EU struck the deal with Turkey in March 2016 and engaged
Libyan coast guard in cracking down on migrant trafficking, following the
peak year of 2015 which saw more than 1 million irregular migrants flocking
to Europe.
The informal summit, convened by European Commission President
Jean Claude-Juncker, is expected to lay the groundwork for the formal one
slated for June 28-29, when the reform of the Common European Asylum System
(CEAS) will feature prominently on the agenda.
Italy has long been frustrated at bearing the brunt of the
migratory pressure under the current Dublin Regulation whereby migrants lodge
asylum claims in the first EU country they enter.
The simmering discontent has vaulted the anti-establishment
Five-Star Movement and the nationalist League into power.
Migration has recently returned to the fore on EU agenda as a
war of words broke out between France and Italy over a rescue ship loaded
with over 600 migrants.
The ship eventually docked in a Spanish port after being turned
away by Italy, whose new right-wing, populist coalition government has taken
a hardline stance on immigration, as promised on the campaign trail.
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Source: NDO
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