Renzi seeks more EU help on migration crisis

Matteo Renzi, the prime minister of Italy, has said that his government will hurt the EU if leaders don’t do more to help the country deal with the migration crisis on its shores

Renzi told the Corrierre della Sera newspaper that he has a “Plan B” if his European counterparts fail to accept a fairer redistribution of refugees and asylum seekers.

“If the European Council chooses solidarity, then good. If it doesn’t, we have a Plan B ready but that would be a wound inflicted on Europe,” he said, without giving details. “We want to work to the last moment for a European response.”

At least 100,000 migrants have entered southern Europe by boat since the start of the year, according to the UN’s refugee agency. More than half of that number arrived in Italy.

Renzi is pushing for a widespread reform of the so-called ‘Dublin regulations’, which assign most asylum seekers to the EU country they first enter; southern EU members say it places an unfair burden on them as they are left to