The Jim Bakker Show

Pence says U.S. will stand firm with Europe, NATO

By Roberta Rampton and John Irish

MUNICH (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday brought a message of support for Europe from Donald Trump but failed to wholly reassure allies worried about the new president’s stance on Russia and the European Union.

In Pence’s first major foreign policy address for the Trump administration, the vice president told European leaders and ministers that he spoke for Trump when he promised “unwavering” commitment to the NATO military alliance.

“Today, on behalf of President Trump, I bring you this assurance: the United States of America strongly supports NATO and will be unwavering in our commitment to this transatlantic alliance,” Pence told the Munich Security Conference.

While Poland’s defense minister praised Pence, many others, including France’s foreign minister and U.S. lawmakers in Munich, remained skeptical that he had convinced allies that Trump, a former reality TV star, would stand by Europe.

Trump’s contradictory remarks on the value of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, scepticism of the 2015 deal to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions and an apparent disregard for the future of the European Union have left Europe fearful for the seven-decade-old U.S. guardianship of the West.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Twitter expressed his disappointment that Pence’s speech contained “Not a word on the European Union”, although the vice president will take his message to EU headquarters in Brussels on Monday.

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, a member of the opposition Democrats, said he saw two rival governments emerging from the Trump administration.

Pence, Trump’s defense secretary Jim Mattis and his foreign minister Rex Tillerson all delivered messages of reassurance on their debut trip to Europe.

But events in Washington, including a free-wheeling news conference Trump gave in which he branded accredited White House reporters “dishonest people”, sowed more confusion.

“Looks like we have two governments,” Murphy wrote on Twitter from Munich. The vice president “just gave speech about shared values between US and Europe as (the U.S. president) openly wages war on those values.”

The resignation of Trump’s security adviser Michael Flynn over his contacts with Russia on the eve of the U.S. charm offensive in Europe also tarnished the message Pence, Mattis and Tillerson were seeking to send, officials told Reuters.

U.S. Republican Senator John McCain, a Trump critic, told the conference on Friday that the new president’s team was “in disarray,” breaking with the American front.

The United States is Europe’s biggest trading partner, the biggest foreign investor in the continent and the European Union’s partner in almost all foreign policy, as well as the main promoter of European unity for more than sixty years.

Pence, citing a trip to Cold War-era West Berlin in his youth, said the new U.S. government would uphold the post-World War Two order.

“This is President Trump’s promise: we will stand with Europe today and every day, because we are bound together by the same noble ideals – freedom, democracy, justice and the rule of law,” Pence said.

MUTED APPLAUSE

While the audience listened intently, Pence received little applause beyond the warm reception he received when he declared his support for NATO.

Ayrault, in a speech defending Franco-German leadership in Europe, lauded the virtues of multilateralism at a time of rising nationalism. Trump has promise ‘America First.’

“In these difficult conditions, many are attempting to look inward, but this isolationism makes us more vulnerable. We need the opposite,” Ayrault said.

Pence warned allies they must pay their fair share to support NATO, noting many lack “a clear or credible path” to do so. He employed a tougher tone than Mattis, who delivered a similar but more nuanced message to NATO allies in Brussels this week, diplomats said.

The United States provides around 70 percent of the NATO alliance’s funds and European governments sharply cut defense spending since the fall of the Soviet Union. Russia’s resurgence as a military power and its seizure of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in the Black Sea has started to change that.

Baltic states and Poland fear Russia might try a repeat of Crimea elsewhere. Europe believes Moscow is seeking to destabilize governments and influence elections with cyber attacks and fake news.

Pence’s tough line on Russia, calling Moscow to honor the international peace accords that seek to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, were welcomed by Poland.

“Know this: the United States will continue to hold Russia accountable, even as we search for new common ground, which as you know, President Trump believes can be found,” Pence said.

Polish Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz said Pence’s speech “highlighted on behalf of President Trump that the U.S. supports NATO, Ukraine and Europe.

“They want to show the U.S. military potential,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Noah Barkin, Andrea Shalal, Vladimir Soldatkin, John Irish and Jonathan Landay; Writing by Robin Emmott; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

United Nations, EU condemn Israel legalizing settlements on Palestinian land

European Union foreign policy chief condenming israel

BRUSSELS/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The European Union’s foreign policy chief and the United Nations secretary-general on Tuesday criticized an Israeli move to legalize thousands of settler homes on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

The EU’s Federica Mogherini said that the law, if it was implemented, crossed a new and dangerous threshold.

“Such settlements constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten the viability of a two-state solution,” she said.

“(It) would further entrench a one-state reality of unequal rights, perpetual occupation and conflict,” she said, highlighting that the EU sees Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories as illegal.

The Israeli parliament passed the legislation two weeks after the inauguration of President Donald Trump as the new U.S. president. Trump has signaled a softer approach to the settlement issue than that of the previous U.S. administration.

It retroactively legalizes about 4,000 settler homes built on privately owned Palestinian land.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the action went against international law and would have legal consequences for Israel.

“The Secretary-General insists on the need to avoid any actions that would derail the two-state solution,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement, referring to longstanding international efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

French President Francois Hollande also added his voice to the condemnation, saying it paved the way for the annexation of the occupied Palestinian territories.

“I think that Israel and its government could revise this text,” Hollande said at news conference after meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas called the law an aggression against the Palestinian people. Other Palestinian leaders described it as a blow to their hopes of statehood.

Most countries consider the settlements, built on land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War, illegal and an obstacle to peace as they reduce and fragment the territory Palestinians seek for a viable state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

Israel disputes this and cites biblical, historical and political connections to the land, as well as security needs.

Though the legislation was backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition, it has raised tensions in the government. Israel’s attorney-general has said the law is unconstitutional and that he will not defend it at the Supreme Court.

A White House official said on Monday that, given the new law is expected to face challenges in Israeli courts, the United States would withhold comment for now.

The Trump administration has signaled a far softer approach to the settlement issue than that of the Obama administration, which routinely denounced settlement announcements.

(Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

U.S. must go on taking refugees, EU migration chief to say in Washington

EU dude for migration saying that the U.S. needs to take migrants/refugees

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union’s top migration official will tell the new U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly in Washington on Wednesday that the United States cannot shut its doors on refugees despite President Donald Trump’s orders.

The EU’s migration commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, will be the first senior Brussels official to visit Washington since Trump’s inauguration more than two weeks ago.

Much of this time has been dominated by uproar over Trump’s decision to stop allowing refugees into the United States and barring almost any travel from seven Muslim-majority countries, a move he said was needed to ensure his nation’s safety.

The EU is also trying to curb immigration after some 1.6 million people arrived in the bloc in 2014-2016, an uncontrolled influx that caught it unprepared, triggered bitter political disputes between member states and raised security concerns.

The bloc has resorted to tightening its borders, rejecting labor migrants more stringently and tightening asylum rules for refugees. These measures, however, do not go anywhere near Trump’s ban on refugees, which the EU has criticized.

“Refugee resettlement is a global responsibility and it cannot be shouldered by just a handful of countries,” Avramopoulos told Reuters on the eve of his talks with Kelly.

“Nations with a long experience in this field, having hosted millions of migrants and refugees, I hope will continue playing their responsible leading role,” he said in emailed comments.

Should the United States rescind more permanently the international law obligation to help people fleeing war or persecution, it would leave the EU under even more pressure.

Separately on Tuesday, a European court cast doubt on the bloc’s strategy to deal with the migration crisis, by saying EU countries cannot refuse entry to people at risk of torture or inhuman treatment. [nL5N1FS27L]

Avramopoulos and Kelly will also discuss security during their first face-to-face meeting that comes at a delicate time for the transatlantic relationship, with the EU worrying Trump could turn his back on America’s European allies.

“Democracy, equality, the rule of law – these are all values we share with the US. Of course our openness should not come at the expense of our security – but our security objectives should never come at the expense of our fundamental values of openness and tolerance either,” Avramopoulos said.

(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Alison Williams)

Divided on Trump, EU insists on European unity

German Chancellor Angela merkel speaks to EU commission

By Alastair Macdonald and Gabriela Baczynska

VALLETTA (Reuters) – European Union leaders said they agreed to stick together in dealing with Donald Trump, but at their first summit since he took office they were at odds on how far to confront or engage with the new U.S. president.

Trump and his policies, from questioning the value of NATO and free trade to banning Muslim refugees, came up repeatedly in discussions in Malta on external “challenges” facing the Union.

British Prime Minister Theresa May, about to lead her country out of the EU, briefed peers on her visit to Washington last week and assured them Trump was committed to cooperating in their defense — just as Britain would also be after Brexit.

Francois Hollande, the outgoing Socialist president of France, led criticism of Trump, calling it “unacceptable” for him to applaud Brexit and forecast the break-up of the EU. In thinly veiled rebukes to May and some eastern states, he warned of trying to cut their own transatlantic deals.

“A lot of countries should think of their future first of all in the European Union rather than imagining I don’t what kind of bilateral relationship with the United States,” he said.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, who like many in the east is alarmed by Trump’s conciliatory noises to Moscow, poured cold water on May’s suggestion Britain could be a link to Washington. Europe did not need a “bridge”, she was quoted as saying, because it could communicate with Trump on Twitter.

But her Polish neighbor, Beata Szydlo, reserved her main criticisms for her predecessor as prime minister, EU summit chair Donald Tusk, who described Trump this week as a “threat” to the EU, along with Russia, China and militant Islam.

“European politicians trying to build this sense of fear … are making a mistake,” said Szydlo, whose government, like Trump, has spoken out against Muslim immigration. “One cannot be confrontational in our relations with the United States.”

MERKEL CAUTIOUS

Stressing the need for unity, the bloc’s dominant leader, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Europeans still had common ground with the United States in many areas, while not sharing Trump’s scepticism about many international institutions.

“We have again made very clear our common values and our faith in multilateralism,” she told a news conference.

The Union would, she said, push for free trade deals with more nations as Trump pulls back. But cooperation with the United States against militant threats would continue, she said.

One EU diplomat said France was clearly pushing to use the Trump presidency to rally Europeans behind a policy of greater distance from Washington and turning to the EU, rather than NATO, for their security.

“The Germans are much more cautious,” the diplomat said. “There is a clear issue to be decided: whether we seek common ground to engage with the United States, or turn our backs.”

Summit host Joseph Muscat, the Maltese prime minister, chose to emphasize balance in summing up the discussions, speaking of “concern” at Trump’s policy but “no sense of anti-Americanism”.

“There was a sense that we need to engage with the U.S. just the same,” Muscat said. “But we need to show that we cannot stay silent where there are principles involved.”

(Writing by Alastair Macdonald, editing by Larry King)

More than 1,300 migrants rescued at sea in one day: Italy coast guard

ROME (Reuters) – More than 1,300 migrants were rescued in 13 separate missions in the Mediterranean on Friday, bringing the total helped over the last three days to more than 2,600, the coast guard said.

The migrants, who were aboard 13 vessels, were saved in the central Mediterranean by ships from the Italian coast guard, the Italian and British navies, merchant ships and vessels operated by non-government organizations, a statement said.

Another 1,300 were rescued on Wednesday.

The voyage from Libya across the Mediterranean to Italy is currently the main route to Europe for migrants.

A record 181,000 made the journey last year, most on flimsy boats run by people-smugglers.

More than 5,000 are believed to have died attempting the crossing in 2016.

In the latest in a series of measures pushed by the European Union to stop migrants reaching Europe, Italy launched a new fund on Wednesday to help African countries control their borders.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

EU extends emergency border controls to tackle migration

italian police officer stopping cars at border

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union envoys agreed on Wednesday to extend emergency border controls inside the bloc’s free-travel zone for another three months to mid-May, as immigration and security continued to dominate the political agenda.

The so-called Schengen zone of open borders collapsed as about 1.5 million refugees and migrants arrived in the bloc in 2015 and 2016, leaving the EU scrambling to ensure security and provide for the people.

Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Norway started imposing the emergency border controls from September, 2015, and got the go-ahead on Wednesday to keep them in place for longer.

Germany is all but certain to seek further extensions beyond that in the build-up to Sept. 24 national elections.

The influx of refugees and migrants has triggered a political crisis and bitter feuds between EU member states, which have not been able to agree on how to share the burden.

This has further strained the EU’s troubled unity, adding to challenges facing the bloc – from the rising power of China and a more assertive Russia, to radical Islam in the Middle East and North Africa and the threat of attacks in Europe, to uncertainty shrouding the trans-Atlantic relationship under the new U.S. President Donald Trump.

(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Hungary set on closer ties with Russia, U.S.: foreign minister

By Krisztina Than and Marton Dunai

BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungary favors closer ties with Russia and also expects links with the United States to improve markedly under President Donald Trump, whose criticism of NATO’s strategy on terrorism it endorses, its foreign minister said on Friday.

In an interview with Reuters days before Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Budapest to discuss closer energy ties, Peter Szijjarto also said the European Union’s sanctions regime against Moscow was ineffective and should be scrapped.

“Hungary’s position on the sanctions is that (they are) useless,” Szijjarto said, estimating Hungary had lost export opportunities worth $6.5 billion since they were introduced in place in 2014.

“Should we be happy with Russia’s economy declining? No, we regret that,” he said, adding that Budapest did not view Moscow as a threat.

Hungary, a member of NATO and the EU, has remained on good terms with Russia under the sanctions regime, imposed following its annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and its subsequent involvement in the separatist conflict in Ukraine.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban has in the past criticized the sanctions, and his overall relations with EU authorities have been less smooth, with Budapest notably defying Brussels over the latter’s attempt to introduce a quota system for hosting refugees.

Speaking in English, Szijjarto said the sanctions had also damaged the wider European economy and failed politically as they had not persuaded Russia to honor the four-power Minsk agreement to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine.

His preference would be for “really high level” talks to find new footing for relations with Russia.

“I don’t see Russia as a threat on Hungary. I understand and respect that our Polish friends, Baltic friends have another position on that… Russia would not attack any NATO member state. I don’t think it would be in Russia’s interest.”

TALKING ENERGY

Szijjarto said Hungary, which will host Putin on Feb. 2, is already looking at ways to extend cooperation on natural gas supplies with Russia beyond 2021.

“We have to start now,” he said, adding Budapest would like to develop alternative energy sources but Russia was far more reliable than European partners, which had failed to build the necessary infrastructure to reduce reliance on Russian gas.

Hungary is also pressing ahead with the construction of two new power blocks at its Paks nuclear plant, a 10 billion euro deal with Moscow that has come under scrutiny from Brussels, with a state aid probe still pending.

Once that probe gives the green light, “we will start (construction) immediately,” Szijjarto said.

Budapest also expects a “massive improvement” in ties with Washington, he said, agreeing with Trump’s view that NATO had failed to defend successfully against the threat of terrorism.

“Currently if we speak about threats …I see ISIS as a threat… A non-state actor is the most serious threat to the civilized world. And in this regard, I think yes, NATO could have a bigger role.”

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban clashed with the Barack Obama administration over what critics said was an erosion of democratic values by his government.

Last year Orban was one of the first international leaders to endorse Trump, who, Szijjarto said would no longer “interfere into the internal political issues of Hungary.”

“Now as the new President made it very clear that export of democracy is out of the focus of US foreign policy… this kind of pressure… will disappear,” he said.

(editing by John Stonestreet)

As attacks grow, EU mulls banking stress tests for cyber risks

file graphic of man using a computer representing cyber attacks

By Francesco Guarascio

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union is considering testing banks’ defenses against cyber attacks, EU officials and sources said, as concerns grow about the industry’s vulnerability to hacking.

Cyber attacks against banks have increased in numbers and sophistication in recent years, with criminals finding new ways to target banks beyond trying to illicitly obtain details of their customers’ online accounts. Last February $81 million was taken from the Bangladesh central bank when hackers broke into its system and gained access to the SWIFT international transactions network.

Global regulators have tightened security requirements for banks after that giant cyber fraud, one of the biggest in history, and in some countries have carried out checks on lenders’ security systems.

But complex cyber attacks have kept rising, as revealed in November by SWIFT in a letter to client banks and by the theft of 2.5 million pounds ($3 million) from Tesco Plc’s banking arm in the first mass hacking of accounts at a Western lender.

Banks “are struggling to demonstrate their ability to cope with the rising threat of intruders gaining unauthorized access to their critical systems and data,” a report of the European Banking Authority (EBA) warned in December.

The next step from European regulators to boost security could be an EU-wide stress test.

The European executive commission is assessing additional initiatives to counter cyber attacks, a commission official told Reuters. “These include cyber-threat information sharing or penetration and resilience testing of systems.”

The European Central Bank announced last year it would set up a database to register incidents of cyber crime at commercial banks in the 19-country euro zone. But exchanges of information among national authorities on cyber incidents remains scant.

The Commission is studying whether EU-wide tests would help step up security, a source at the EU executive said. This would be in addition to controls already carried out by national authorities.

EBA, which is in charge of stress-testing the bloc’s banks, is expected to detail in summer the checks it intends to conduct in the next exercise planned in mid 2018.

EBA tests banks’ capital cushions and can conduct checks on specific issues. Last year it monitored risks caused by fines, as EU lenders faced sanctions from U.S. regulators.

An EBA official said cyber security was on the agency’s radar but no decision had been made on a possible stress test. The body’s chairman, Andrea Enria, has urged EU states to stress-test their financial institutions for cyber risks.

Lloyds Banking Group is working with law enforcement agencies to trace who was behind a cyber attack that caused intermittent outages for customers of its personal banking websites almost two weeks ago, according to a source familiar with the incident. Lloyds said it would not speculate on the cause of the attack. No customers suffered any losses.

BLOCKCHAIN

As European banks keep relying on digital infrastructure that is “rigid and outdated”, according to EBA, regulators are considering new technologies that could boost security.

Blockchain, the technology behind the most successful virtual currency, Bitcoin, is being closely monitored in Brussels “to establish the advantages and possible risks” but also to weigh possible moves to enable blockchain where it is hindered, the Commission source said.

More than 1 billion euros have been invested in blockchain startups, a World Economic Forum report said.

The EU agency for network and information security (ENISA) said in a report last week the technology offered new opportunities and could cut costs, but may also pose new cyber security challenges, mostly caused by its decentralized network.

Sterling skids to three-month low as ‘hard Brexit’ fears bite

By Jemima Kelly

LONDON (Reuters) – Sterling skidded to its lowest levels – bar a “flash crash” in October – in 32 years on Monday, hit by fears that Prime Minister Theresa May will say on Tuesday that Britain is set for a “hard” Brexit out of the EU and its single market.

Sterling fell as much as 1.5 percent against the dollar and 2.5 percent against the yen. That shifted the spotlight away from the greenback, which has come under pressure in recent days as investors ponder U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s likely economic policies after he takes office on Friday.

The pound plunged to $1.1983 <GBP=D4> in early trade in Asia, depths not seen since a bout of thin liquidity triggered a “flash crash” on Oct. 7 that wiped as much as 10 percent off the pound in a matter of minutes. Apart from that, it was the lowest level since May 1985.

By 1230 GMT (7:30 a.m. ET) sterling had managed to climb back above $1.20, but was still trading down more than 1 percent on the day at $1.204.

Dealers said the market was reacting to various media reports over the weekend that said May would signal plans for a “hard” Brexit in her speech on Tuesday, saying she’s willing to quit the European Union’s single market in order to regain control of Britain’s borders.

“Every time there’s ‘hard Brexit’ headlines, that triggers a fresh bout of selling sterling,” said MUFG currency analyst Lee Hardman, in London. “It’s almost impossible to see Europe allowing the UK to remain a full member of the single market if it wants to regain control of the border and the laws and wants to strike its own agreements.”

Hardman added that the weekend reports were “not really new news”, as May’s government has consistently pointed toward giving priority to immigration controls over single market access, and that was why sterling had not fallen further in London trading hours.

U.S. markets were closed on Monday for Martin Luther King day, which means liquidity will be lower.

“The fact that the sell-offs usually happen during periods in which there’s less liquidity increases the risk we could have a sharper sell-off (today), but as we saw in the flash crash that doesn’t mean that’s fundamentally justified,” said Hardman.

Citi’s head of European G10 currency strategy in London, Richard Cochinos, said Britain’s hefty current account and budget deficits meant it was heavily dependent on foreign capital. The more uncertainty investors feel over Britain’s place in Europe, he said, the more investment dries up – the key reason for sterling’s weakness.

May has said she will trigger Article 50 – starting the formal EU withdrawal talks – by the end of March. But so far, she has revealed few details about what kind of deal she will seek, frustrating some investors, businesses and lawmakers.

“SAFE-HAVEN” YEN

The euro climbed as much as 1.5 percent against the pound to a two-month high of 88.53 pence <EURGBP=>, before retreating to 87.85 pence, still up 0.7 percent on the day.

Against the yen, which is perceived as a safe haven, sterling fell as much as 2.3 percent to a two-month low of 136.48 yen <GBPJPY=>, before recovering to trade down around 1.4 percent on the day by 1230 GMT.

The Japanese currency gained broadly as a risk-off mood permeated markets, hitting a six-week high of 113.61 yen to the U.S. dollar <JPY=>.

“The risk-averse sentiment stemming from ‘hard Brexit’ (worries) is pushing down the dollar/yen,” Masafumi Yamamoto, chief forex strategist at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo.

“But so far, I think the correction from the dollar/yen’s high in December, and concerns about stronger protectionism under the new U.S. presidency, have been the dominant theme.”

The dollar index climbed 0.4 percent to 101.59 <.DXY>.

Trump revealed few policy clues at his first press conference last week since his November election victory. The dollar rose after the election on expectations that his administration would embark on stimulus to boost growth and inflation, prompting the U.S. Federal Reserve to adopt a faster pace of interest rate hikes.

But Trump’s protectionist stance has also added to some investors’ risk aversion, as he has threatened to impose retaliatory tariffs on China, build a wall along the Mexican border and tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

For Reuters Live Markets blog on European and UK stock markets see reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageId=livemarkets

(Additional reporting by Wayne Cole in Sydney and Tokyo markets team; Editing by Catherine Evans)

EU eyes new Libya approach to block feared migrant wave

raft overcrowded with migrants/refugees in the Mediterranean Sea

By Alastair Macdonald

VALLETTA (Reuters) – The European Union plans new measures to deter migrants crossing the Mediterranean from Libya, officials said, as Malta urged the bloc to act on Thursday to head off a surge in arrivals from a country where Russia is taking a new interest.

With options limited by the weakness of the U.N.-recognized government and by divisions among EU states, it is unclear just what the EU may agree. But officials believe a consensus can be found within weeks in support of national steps taken by Italy.

Rome once effectively paid Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi to block migrants. Since he was overthrown with Western backing in 2011, it has struggled to cope with large numbers of new arrivals. Italy is now working with U.N.-backed Prime Minister Fayez Seraj on a new agreement under which Rome will help guard Libya’s southern desert borders against smugglers.

Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who hosted the executive European Commission in Valletta on Wednesday and will host an EU summit discussing migration on Feb. 3, said new Russian contacts with a Libyan rebel commander and intelligence indicating a sharp increase in crossings once the weather improves made urgent EU action imperative.

“Come next spring, we will have a crisis,” he told a news conference, forecasting “unprecedented” numbers following the record 180,000 sea arrivals in Italy last year.

“The choice is trying to do something now … or meeting urgently in April, May, saying there are tens of thousands of people crossing the Mediterranean, drowning … and then trying to do a deal then.”

“I would beg that we try … to do a deal now,” added Muscat, whose government will chair EU councils until June.

The Commission visit to Malta included senior Libya experts, said officials who foresee new EU policy proposals within weeks.

TURKEY MODEL

After all but halting migrant flows to Greece through a deal last year with Turkey to hold back Syrian refugees, the EU wants to cut flows from Libya. It wants to step up deportations of failed asylum seekers and is using aid budgets to pressure African states to cooperate in taking back their citizens.

Some EU states are looking at greater military involvement to disrupt migrant smuggling gangs which have thrived in the absence of effective authority in Libya.

The EU is training the Libyan coastguard in international waters but has not been able to agree for many months on whether to move into Libya’s territorial waters.

But Muscat said he saw an emerging consensus on a new approach, including from a hitherto skeptical Germany, adding Italy’s deal with Libya should be emulated by the EU.

Muscat said the EU should seek Libyan agreement to expand the bloc’s mission – currently involved in search and rescue operations, trying to obstruct traffickers and uphold a U.N. arms embargo – into Libyan waters.

He said the EU should revive an agreement drafted with Gaddafi, which offered funding to Libya in exchange for more checks on migration.

Asked whether he foresaw EU forces patrolling Libyan borders or the EU setting up camps in Libya to process asylum claims, Muscat did not go into detail on how an EU plan would work beyond saying that, as with the Turkey deal, the key element was “scuttling the business model” of smuggling gangs.

After talks on Thursday, Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti and EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said in a joint statement that the EU backed engagement with Libya. They said: “The Commission is ready to further support Italy in this engagement politically, financially and operationally.”

(Additional reporting by Isla Binnie in Rome and Gabriela Baczynska and Robin Emmott in Brussels; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Sign up for Jim Bakker Show