European Council President
Donald Tusk told the European Parliament in Strasbourg on
Wednesday that the EU was ready to support Italy with the
asylum-seeker crisis.
"After the solution on the front of the Balkan route we
know that the central Mediterranean one may reopen," Tusk said.
"We are ready to show solidarity to Italy and Malta".
A new agreement between Brussels and Ankara has come into
force to ease the asylum-seeker crisis which will see, among
other things, economic migrants being sent to Turkey in exchange
for the EU accepting Syrian refugees currently in Turkey.
"Without the agreement with Turkey, the Schengen
(border-free system within the EU) would have collapsed," Tusk
said.
"It would have been political chaos and we would have had
populism advancing".
There is currently tension between the EU and Vienna over
Austria's moves to reinforce controls at its border with Italy
at the Brenner Pass, including via the construction of a new
barrier.
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