EU moves on migrant plans

100 reportedly lost at sea

BRUSSELS — European Union leaders Friday drew up new plans to screen migrants in North Africa for eligibility to enter Europe, saying they set aside major differences over stemming the flow of people seeking sanctuary or better lives. But the show of unity did little to hide the fact that the hardest work still lies ahead.

Even as they met in Brussels for a second day, Libya’s coast guard said about 100 people were missing and feared dead after their boat capsized in the Mediterranean.

The leaders agreed on a “new approach” to manage those rescued at sea, just as bickering over who should take responsibility for them undermines unity and threatens cross-border business and travel in Europe.

Italy, Greece and Spain bear responsibility for accepting most of the migrants and have felt abandoned by their EU partners. Italy, with a new anti-European government, has refused to take charge of people rescued at sea in recent weeks, sparking a diplomatic row with France and Malta. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition partner is demanding she take a tougher line on migrants, undermining her leadership.

The new plan is to receive people from rescue ships in EU nations that agree to share responsibility for handling migration with the EU’s main point-of-entry countries like Spain, Italy and Greece. But they also will receive them in centers in North Africa and possibly the Balkans.

“A complete approach was adopted,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters after a night of haggling and delays to address demands from Italy that its views be incorporated in the final summit statement.

“We are protecting better. We are cooperating more. And we are reaffirming our principles. All hastily made solutions, be they solely national ones or a betrayal of our values that consists in pushing people off to third countries, were clearly set aside,” Macron said.

Even new Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, whose populist government has rocked the EU’s political landscape, said: “On the whole, we can say we are satisfied.”

“Italy is no longer alone, as we requested,” he said.

That said, the Czech Republic and Austria have no intention of basing migrant centers on their territory.