(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 1 - Migrants will be on the agenda of an EU summit on March 23 after Premier Giorgia Meloni sent a letter requesting this, a European Council spokesperson said Wednesday.
EU Council President Charles Michel received the letter sent to him by Meloni calling for immediate EU action on the migrant dossier, said spokesman Barend Leyts.
The agreement at the last European Council, he said, was to "monitor progress on the migration issue, in particular on the basis of updates from the Commission and the presidency of the semester.
This will be on the agenda at the next European Council, Leyts added. The next EU leaders' summit is scheduled for 23-24 March.
The migrant issue has once more come to the forefront of EU debate after a shipwreck off Calabria that has left over 100 migrants, mainly from Iran and Afghanistan, feared dead including several children and at least one baby.
Meloni's government is regulating the activities of NGO run rescue ships which secret services said Tuesday give an advantage to migrant traffickers.
Italy has long been pressing its EU partners to shoulder more of the burden of migrant reception which falls largely on Italy across the central Mediterranean.(ANSA).