At a press conference in Paris, Emanuel Macron and Giuseppe Conte say they both support the idea of more solidarity within the European Union regarding migrants and asylum seekers
ADVERTISEMENTFrench and Italian leaders both agree the migrant situation must change.
At a press conference, Emanuel Macron and Giuseppe Conte say they both support the idea of more solidarity within the European Union.
They both agree that the Dublin Regulation should change.
That's the EU law that says the country of arrival is the one that should take responsibility of migrants and asylum seekers.
The Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said: "Dublin rules must change. Italy is strongly against the proposals of Dublin rules reform that are debated now, and prepares its own proposal. The concept itself of the state of first entry will be rethought. Who puts its feet in Italy, puts its feet in Europe. We need to consolidate the concept of the European border."
Earlier Macron said that last year France received 100,000 demands of asylum and Italy received 129,000.
French President Emmanuel Macron says, "France with figures that I quoted earlier_*_ since the beginning of the year France has received a lot of asylum applications from those who first arrived in the Schengen zone but in many cases, the people were turned away from other countries - mainly Germany but other Schengen countries as well. And, according to our rules it means that for the large majority those people will need to be first sent to those ' Schengen entry countries' and only then transported to their country of origin. Those rules are untenable".
They also say the issue needs to be tackled before people put their lives at risk at sea.
In the first four months of this year, Macron says Italy and France received huge demands from people for asylum.
Italy received 18,000 and France 26,000.