A European solution  to irregular migration based on solidarity was still missing, Labour MEP Marlene Mizzi said today.

In an intervention in Strasbourg at a Parliamentary debate with Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans and Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos discussing the Commission Agenda on Migration, Ms Mizzi welcomed the Commission's agenda which, she said, presented an impressive arsenal of perfectly targeted, concrete measures.

"But, in reality, a European solution based on solidarity is still missing," she said.

She welcomed the Commission proposal to introduce binding quotas for asylum seekers to relieve the burden on periphery countries like Italy and Malta.

However, she said:

"I still think that the Commission needs to go a step further and commit to revise the Dublin regulations, without which we won't achieve concrete results," she said.

For regardless of the thousands of deaths in the Mediterranean, there was still opposition from some member states, which would do everything to prevent the introduction of a fair quota system, she said.

As for the long term solutions, Ms Mizzi said the only way forward was to give migrants a future in their own country through investment in the economy, health and education.

Only then would the haemorrhage of those seeking a better future in Europe be solved.