We can shut Libya route to Italy - Tusk (3)

(ANSA) - Brussels, February 2 - European Council President Donald Tusk said after talks with Libyan Premier Fayez al Serraj Thursday that "it is time to close the (migrant) route from Libya to Italy". He said "the EU has shown it is able to close the routes of irregular migration, as it has done in the eastern Mediterranean.
    "I spoke at length with Premier (Paolo) Gentiloni yesterday and I can assure you we can succeed. What is needed is the full determination to do so. "We owe it first of all to those who suffer and risk their lives, but we also owe it to the Italians and all the Europeans".
    The EU and Libya, Tusk observed, have a "common interest in reducing the number of irregular migrants risking their lives in the central Mediterranean".
    He said that flow was "not sustainable either for the EU or for Libya" where "the traffickers are undermining the authority of the Libyan State for their profit".
    In tomorrow's summit, he said, there will be "additional measures" to "more effectively combat the networks of traffickers and better manage the migratory flows". The EU, the European Council president added, "fully supports the Libyans' efforts to find a political accord and the United Nations' efforts for detente".
    Tusk reiterated his "full support" for the national-unity government of Serraj but also issued an appeal to Serraj's opponents, stressing that "further results, in a constructive sense" are needed to involve "those in Libya who have not joined the new institutions".
    After observing that the "humanitarian and security situation has devastated the prospects for the civilian population," Tusk said the EU "will continue to supply assistance to the Libyan people" but he also "urged all Libyans to put aside their differences so that the EU can make a greater commitment" to the troubled north African country.