EU must act together on Africa to stem mass migration: Italy PM

ROME, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) must act together on Africa to prevent mass migration, and it must take advantage of the ongoing economic recovery to achieve a closer union, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Tuesday.

Addressing the Senate ahead of the next European Council meeting of Dec. 14 and 15, Gentiloni said that Italy's efforts to fight human traffickers jointly with Libya and to spotlight the need to invest massively in sub-Saharan Africa have set the stage for a wider debate at the EU level.

"The question we will ask...is whether, based on these results, the time to invest all together as European Union countries has finally arrived," Gentiloni said to applause from the Senate floor.

"I am relatively optimistic," Gentiloni added, noting that the so-called Visegrad Four countries -- the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia -- recently announced they would contribute 35 million euros (41 million U.S. dollars) to EU investments in Africa.

The Italian prime minister said this was "a significant amount." The Visegrad Four countries hold staunchly anti-immigrant positions, closing their borders to refugees and refusing to accept migrant relocations from Italy and Greece.

Gentiloni went on to say that Italy was in favor of closer monetary and banking union, another item on the agenda at the summit to be held next Thursday and Friday.

"There is a significant piece of the European family that would like to go backwards and not forwards on these matters," Gentiloni remarked, pointing to "differing center-north and Mediterranean positions."

The Italian premier called for an EU-controlled backstop reserve for the banking union, and said Italy was in favor of the creation of an EU finance minister, as long as the position calls for creating economic growth not just "acting as a controller" to make sure individual countries play by the rules.

An EU finance minister "is a good thing if it comes with a common budget policy," Gentiloni said. "We need common, European budget items to deal with migration, security, defense, and to set up common welfare mechanisms," he said.

Italy, Gentiloni pointed out, has proposed a European social security fund that individual countries grappling with record unemployment could draw on.

"We must take advantage of an opportunity, which is due to the fact that after a significant economic crisis, the EU and the eurozone in particular are experiencing stable and widespread growth," Gentiloni said in closing.

The Italian premier is set to address the Lower House later Tuesday evening on these same issues.

On the agenda at the next European Council summit are finding "solutions to migratory pressures", the new Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) defense pact, and Brexit, according to the Council's official website. Enditem