Roundup: Italy, Germany, France jointly call for EU asylum process overhaul

Just days after Italy, Germany and France locked horns over the way the European Union was handling the growing migrant crisis, the three countries joined together to call for a major overhaul of the asylum process for the 28-nation bloc.

Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Paolo Gentiloni announced the new development this week, and was cast by some analysts as an indication that Italy -- the country most impacted by the migrant crisis over recent years -- was helping to set the European agenda in this area.

In a jointly written letter signed by Gentiloni along with his German counterpart Frank Walter Steinmeier and France's Laurent Fabius, the three ministers cast a new light on what they called the "shortcomings" of the existing European Union asylum system.

Gentiloni, Steinmeier and Fabius also said all European countries should share the burden of accommodating the refugees in a "fair" way.

The European Union's current asylum rules date to 1990, and they obligate the country where a refugee arrives to register, process, and determine the validity of the asylum request for the new arrival. Each country's asylum rules could differ from those of its neighbors.

That put an extra burden on southern European countries like Italy and Greece, which are close to North Africa and Turkey, respectively, and which have long coastlines that make it easier for refugees to touch land. Those two countries also happen to be the two most indebted countries in the European Union relative to the respective size of their economies.

If the European Union as a whole follows the lead of Italy, Germany and France it could spark major changes: the three countries, along with Britain, are among the four largest economies with the four largest populations among the 28 European Union states. But adoption of the kind of EU-wide policy is not guaranteed since several EU states have refused to take in their share of the rising tide of migrants.

Whatever the case, according to Emmanuelle Bianchi, a retired political scientist and a commentator on European political affairs, the fact that Germany and France joined Italy's long-standing call for action in this area illustrates Italy's leadership role in the area.

"Up until recently, Italy received the most migrants and it has recognized the problem before other countries," Bianchi said in an interview. "Germany remains the dominant country in the European Union, but this helps show that depending on the topic other countries can play a leadership role."

Bianchi went on: "When it's the migrant crisis, Italy is a clear protagonist." Endit