Spain's PM Sanchez says Europe needs orderly migration to remain open and prosperous

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he had argued for Europe to remain open and prosperous instead of closed and poor in a European Council summit in which countries like Italy and Germany are seeking to tighten the bloc's stance.

Sanchez said in a news conference after the summit that he had argued against Italy's model of opening a migrant processing centres in third countries, saying it created more problems. He called instead for a more coherent and humanitarian approach to what he described as a positive phenomenon to support the pensions of shrinking European populations.

Europe must work more closely with migration origin countries, including European border agency working outside European borders to police it, to ensure migration is "orderly, secure and equalised".