EU joins forces with UK and Albania in effort to stop people smugglers

The EU has joined forces with the UK and Albania to extend the fight against people smugglers across the wider continent, after forceful interventions by Giorgia Meloni and Rishi Sunak at a summit of 47 European leaders in Spain

- Lisa O’Carroll Granada , Aubrey Allegretti

The plan was forged on the sidelines of the European Political Community summit in Granada with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the prime ministers of France, the Netherlands and Albania - Emmanuel Macron, Mark Rutte and Edi Rama - joining the Italian and UK leaders.

Macron told reporters they had agreed a new "five-point plan" to build on and then export to the entire membership of the EPC to create the first concerted continent-wide fight against people smugglers.

Not only would they tackle criminals operating boats in the Mediterranean and the Channel but also organised crime in wider Europe, he said.

"We will enlarge this format and this approach to the EPC because it makes much more sense as we will have the coalition of the willing: members of the EU, the European Commission plus Albania and the UK and all the other countries ready to join the initiative.

"So we will elaborate on a fivepoint document and we propose the other members of the EPC can join if they want," he added.