At the EU Summit #EUCO president Donald Tusk confirmed that the bloc is ready to offer assistance to Italy in resolving the Mediterranean migrant crisis.

“We have spoken about how to help Italy manage the central Mediterranean route,” Tusk said. “The leaders agreed to offer Premier Gentiloni stronger support for the Italian work with the Libyan authorities. We have a real opportunity to close the route”.

There are controversial reports on migrant arrivals to Italy in recent months, while the EU sources claim the numbers have fallen sharply since Italy struck a deal with Libyan coast guard, a number of independent sources indicate opposite, lamenting sharp rise of arrivals to Italy in October.

Tusk called the member states to donate a total of 100 million euros for the European Fund for Africa, in particular Libya, by the end of the year.