THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: France and Italy will on Tuesday present Brussels with an ultimatum to tear up the free travel European border rules that has been the EU's signature accomplishment for 16 years.
Nicolas Sarkozy is holding emergency talks in Rome with Silvio Berlusconi after a row over Tunisian refugees threatened to spiral out of control and lead to the reintroduction of French border controls.
The Italian prime minister called the meeting after his decision to give more than 25,000 Tunisian refugees residence permits caused the worst border crisis since the EU's 1995 Schengen Treaty.
The French president, who will face a challenge from the anti-immigrant far-Right during elections next year, has responded furiously and criticised "flawed" EU rules that have let the migrants into France. The French sparked a major diplomatic incident last week after closing the rail border with Italy at Ventimiglia, citing risks of disturbances to public order to refuse entry to trains carrying Tunisian migrants.
France has accused Italy of violating the EU's "Schengen" free movement rules by giving the Arab migrants, who are mainly French-speaking, permits and encouraging them to travel to France.
Periodic border checks with Italy have been reinstated and several hundred Tunisians, bearing the residence permits, have been sent back to Italy. » | Bruno Waterfield, Brussels | Monday, April 25, 2011
