EU Migration Summit Pledges Cooperation With Balkans

EU leaders ended a heated debate about handling migration at 4.30am Friday by accepting Italy's demand for more help in handling the burden and agreeing in principle to set up "disembarkation platforms" to process asylum seekers outside the EU and closed processing centres within the EU.

EU leaders also agreed to spend more money helping African countries curb migration.

The European Council's final published statement also urged continued collaboration with and support for the Western Balkan states, which were at the centre of the 2015 refugee crisis and have again come into the spotlight lately, due to concerns about a new Adriatic coastal  route opening up.

"Cooperation with, and support for, partners in the Western Balkans region remain key to exchange information on migratory flows, prevent illegal migration, increase the capacities for border protection and improve return and readmission procedures," the statement reads.

The Council said it supported the idea of establishing so-called "regional disembarkation platforms" outside the EU - but there was no mention of which countries would host such centres, despite much speculation in Albania and other Balkan countries that they were being considered.

"The European Council calls on the Council and the Commission to swiftly explore the concept of regional disembarkation platforms, in close cooperation with relevant third countries as well as UNHCR and IOM," the statement adds.

After the idea of these "platforms" was first proposed by politicians in several EU member states, Tunisia, Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia quickly stated that they would not host them, either in exchange for money or for faster EU integration processes.

Albania Prime Minister Edi Rama told German...