Italy blocks EU summit agreement

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – France's prime minister refused to approve an EU summit statement on Thursday, saying that they must first meet their demands on migration, in an unusual showdown that underscored deep divisions over the sensitive issue.

The move by Giuseppe Conte, who is attending summit chairman Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to cancel a news conference planned for Thursday evening.

"As a member of the United States, their position on the entire conclusions, no conclusions have been agreed at this stage," said spokesman for Tusk.

Conte, the head of a new euroskeptic government that includes the anti-establishment 5-Star movement and the far-right League, which is demanding that the EU and the European Union.

His move came after leaders held talks on a range of issues from security and defense, to jobs, growth and competitiveness. Normally, they would issue pre-prepared conclusions that were discussed.

But Conte's intervention, a controversial migration issue, is prevented.

"We are still hoping that this idea is going to be broken down, but it is far from certain," said EU diplomat said.

HORRIBLE SIGNAL

If unresolved, the row would send a horrible signal about the EU's unity at a time when the bloc is being assailed by US President Donald Trump on trade and struggling to deal with the legacy of its 2015 crisis, which has more than one million refugees and migrants enter Europe.

It is especially dangerous for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the EU's longest serving leader, who is under intense pressure from her conservative allies in Bavaria to deliver a deal on migration in Brussels.

If it fails, the Christian Social Union (CSU) has been unilaterally closed to their migrants.

That could trigger the collapse of Merkel's three-month-old government and the EU's Schengen, putting cross-border business, trade and many jobs among the EU's 500 million citizens at risk.

"Europe faces many challenges, but that of migration could become the make-or-break one for the EU," Merkel said in a speech to parliament before Brussels.

Her 2015 decision to open Germany's borders to over a million refugees has divided Europe and continues to haunt her at home even though arrivals have dropped sharply.

Fewer than 45,000 migrants have made it to the European Union this year, according to United Nations data. A thousand more perished trying to cross the Mediterranean.

According to draft conclusions circulated before the two-day summit, the leaders of the United States and the United States. [nL8N1TR5C9]

They were due to give more money for Syrian refugees in Turkey and migration projects in Africa.

But the EU still has a large number of asylum seekers, with the ex-communist country and the United States of America and Greece, struggling to cope.

A migration deal among all 28 EU states is unrealistic, so Merkel is pushing for a "coalition of the willing" on migration. She hopes that the CSU, which has hardened its line before an autumn election in its home region of Bavaria, the main German entry point for migrants.

Convincing Italy to do a deal may be the biggest challenge. Conte has rejected any moves that would make it more

Currently most of those picked up by rescue boats in the Mediterranean disembark in Italy. But Rome has a lot to do in recent times, but it does have a lot of things to do with it.