Southern EU leaders on Friday sought to close ranks on migration, extremism and austerity with the bloc's future on the line, and ahead of a showdown with hardliners next week.
Bringing together the members worst hit by the EU's twin recession and refugee crises, the mini-summit will focus on "protecting borders, fostering growth, fighting against immigration... and acting together against terrorism," French President Francois Hollande said at the meeting's start.The host, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, told news site Euractiv ahead of the seven-nation huddle: "Europe's Mediterranean countries can and must raise their voice." With Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in attendance, the gathering comes less than two weeks after rescuers saved a one-day record of 6,500 migrants making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe.
"It is now common knowledge that Europe is at a critical crossroads," Tsipras said.
"Economic stagnation, social cohesion problems, the rise of Euroscepticism and isolationism, the strengthening of far-right populist phenomena, are issues that we cannot bypass."
The four-hour conclave is a chance to craft a common platform ahead of a major summit in Bratislava next month to chart the union's post-Brexit future.
The 27 EU leaders -- the entire bloc, except Britain -- will gather September 16 to discuss the fallout from the British vote in June to quit the EU.