The European Union must roll out a plan to share the burden of migration more fairly between member states and to effectively manage the phenomenon, Italy's foreign minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi and his Luxembourg counterpart Jean Asselborn agreed during talks in Rome on Friday.
During in-depth talks at Villa Madama, the two ministers "highlighted the numerous synergies between Italy and Luxembourg - both founder members of the EU, who share a commitment to the principles of solidarity and concrete cooperation that underpin the European project," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
"Concerning the EU, the talks centred on the need for greater management of migration with genuine burden-sharing at European level," the statement said.
Moavero and Asselborn agreed the European Commission must be "heavily involved" in creating "a structured framework of rules and stable mechanisms" needed for the "indispensable and shared management of a phenomenon that concerns the whole of Europe".
The borderless Schengen zone was under threat unless the European asylum system was reformed "first and foremost making clear the duties of all member states to shelter migrants rescued at sea and to respect EU and international law", the statement underlined.
Italy's deputy premier Luigi Di Maio last month said the government could suspend its payments to the bloc's budget. He made the threat after representatives from EU countries at a meeting in Brussels on 24 August failed to agree a common approach on migration and to follow through on a deal to manage the influx of migrants to the bloc and ease he burden on Italy and other front-line states which was reached by EU leaders at a summit in late June.
Some 700,000 boat migrants have reached Italy since 2014 from North Africa and the populist government that took office on 1 June has vowed to deport half a million illegal immigrants and halt further arrivals.
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