Italy's premier Giuseppe Conte and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's talks in Rome on Tuesday aimed to lay the groundwork for a "positive" outcome to the European Union summit in Salzburg this week, Conte told reporters after their meeting.
"Austria hold the rotating EU presidency and Chancellor Kurz wanted an exchange of ideas to prepare good results from the summit," Conte stated.
EU heads of state and government will focus on security at the two-day summit which kicks off on Wednesday. Police and judicial cooperation as well as cyber-security and measures to tighten the 28-member bloc's borders top the agenda and the summit will also address thorny issue of migration.
Austria and Italy’s far-right interior ministers during talks in Vienna on Friday proposed holding migrants rescued at sea on ships for days while an initial screening of their prospects of obtaining asylum is carried out.
Migrants deemed ineligible for asylum should be denied access to Europe under Herbert Kickl and Matteo Salvini's controversial plans.
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