France on Thursday began prodding EU partners back towards a long-stalled reform of the bloc's migration system, urging tighter control of external borders and better burden-sharing when it comes to asylum-seekers.
In a reflection of the deep-rooted divisions on the issue, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the effort would be done "in stages".
He was speaking ahead of a meeting of fellow interior ministers he was chairing under France's current role holding the EU presidency.
A planned overhaul has so far foundered on the refusal of countries such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia to accept a sharing out of asylum-seekers across the bloc.
That leaves countries on the EU's outer southern rim - Italy, Greece, Malta and Spain - left with responsibility for handling irregular migrants, many of whom are intent on making their way to Europe's wealthier northern nations.
Darmanin said he would push for member states to commit to reinforcing the EU's external borders by recording the details of every foreign arrival and improving vetting procedures.
He also said that recalcitrant EU countries should financially help out the ones on the frontline of irregular migration flows if they would not take in asylum-seekers themselves.
The EU's home affairs commission Ylva Johansson said more had to be done to protect the EU's borders, noting that last year 39 million people entered the bloc's passport-free Schengen area without being screened against a common security database.
She called the French approach "a realistic roadmap".
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser suggested her country, France and others could go ahead with a "coalition of the willing" to take in asylum-seekers even in the absence of a bloc-wide agreement.
She noted the French President Emmanuel Macron - who on Wednesday urged better coordination over the Schengen area - spoke of a dozen countries in that grouping, but added that was probably "very optimistic".
Darmanin said France would seek commitments from "a large pool of European countries" without giving a number.