Home Affairs Ministers from Malta, Italy, France, Spain, Greece and Cyprus today called on the EU to adopt immediate as well as long term measures aimed at tackling an expected influx of migrants because of instability in North Africa.

In a statement issued after a meeting in Rome, the ministers called for a common solidarity mechanism that made possible burden sharing with those countries most affected by the expected wave of illegal immigrants. They also called for immediate funding to help such countries and measures to make the border agency Frontex more effective.

The ministers called on the EU to:

"Place the Mediterranean issue at the core of the EU agenda, at the highest political level with the involvement of European and international institutions and welcome the decision taken by the EU Presidency to discuss the issue at the forthcoming JHA Council and by the President of the European Council to engage a debate at the next European Council;

"Build a new partnership with the countries in the Southern Neighbourhood which are pursuing political and economic reforms, involving more effective support from EU side and full local ownership;

"Give full consideration, in a spirit of solidarity, to the difficulties of those Member States subjected to disproportionate influxes of immigrants;

"Recognize the need and urgency of strategies that can address security, immigration and asylum taken as a whole, through the enhancement of existing EU instruments and the effective implementation of the measures foreseen;

"Encourage forms of bilateral co-operation to address migration issues, both between Member States and with the countries of origin and transit of migration flows focusing, inter alia, on return and readmission and dismantling trafficking networks;

"Strengthen the capacity of Frontex in order to make it a truly operational tool and improve its synergy with other bodies and with Europol in relation to possible terrorist and criminal threats"