European leaders reached a deal on migration in the early hours of Friday after tense and lengthy talks, but the pledges made to strengthen borders were vague and a bleary-eyed German Chancellor Angela Merkel conceded differences remained.
Under the agreement, reached after nine hours of often stormy talks, EU leaders agreed to share out refugees arriving in the bloc on a voluntary basis and create “controlled centres” inside the European Union to process asylum requests.
They also agreed to share responsibility for migrants rescued at sea, a key demand of Italy’s new Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
“Italy is not alone anymore,” he said.
Conte, whose government includes the anti-establishment 5-Star movement and far-right League, had earlier refused to endorse a summit text on security and trade until other leaders had pledged to help Italy manage Mediterranean arrivals.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, whose League party has campaigned to bar migrants fleeing Africa and expel those already in Italy, on Friday welcomed the deal, saying Italy had obtain 70 per cent of what it had been seeking.
“Let’s see the concrete commitments,” Salvini said in a radio interview when asked to comment on the deal.
The Brussels meeting underscored how Europe’s 2015 spike in immigration continues to haunt the bloc, despite a sharp drop in arrivals of people fleeing conflict and economic hardship in the Middle East and Africa.