Photo : Collected
EU leaders will discuss tightening rules on migration as they meet in Brussels on Thursday for a summit that is set to crystallize a rightward shift in the bloc's rhetoric.
Support for Ukraine, with President Volodymyr Zelensky in attendance, and the crisis in the Middle East will be the other main issues on the table at the gathering, which gets underway at 10:00 am (0800 GMT).
"There is a desire to work on pragmatic solutions," Italy's hard-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told reporters on the eve of the migration talks -- though no major decisions were expected on the topic.
Rome, which is hosting a mini-summit just ahead of the main event to discuss a common approach with like-minded countries, started sending some migrants to Albania this week, as part of a deal with Tirana other EU capitals have shown a keen interest in.
Slovenia's Prime Minister Robert Golob on Wednesday described the initiative as a "pilot project" that "all of Europe could learn from". Italy is among a group of nations pushing for further reform only months after a long-negotiated deal on migration was agreed on.
Irregular border crossings into the European Union are down more than 40 percent this year after reaching the highest level in nearly a decade in 2023, according to the EU border agency, Frontex.
But migration remains "seen as a pressing and an urgent domestic issue" by many of the EU's 27 nations, said a senior EU diplomat.
Messenger/Disha
