As Mediterranean and European Union countries, Italy and Spain should work to bolster the entire 27-nation bloc, president Sergio Mattarella said in Madrid on Wednesday during a state visit.
Italy and Spain "are at the centre of an area - the Mediterranean", whose future hangs in the balance, Mattarella said in an address to Spain's lower house of parliament.
"It (the Mediterranean) could be marginalised by global development axes - or become the fulcrum for effective integration between the continents of Africa and Europe," Mattarella went on.
"For this reason, therefore, it is natural to work side by side, so that our proposals receive due consideration, strengthening and fortifying the entire structure of the EU in this way," Mattarella underlined.
Mattarella is on a two-day visit to Spain, which began on Tuesday.
