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The European Union has been weathering plenty of disunity in recent months. But on Friday, the blocs leaders seemed united in concerns over President Trump.

In the Mediterranean island nation of Malta, leaders arriving for the EUs first gathering since Trumps inauguration had some sharp words for the 2-week-old U.S. administration.

Both before and after taking office, Trump has been vocal in his support of Britains vote last June to exit the European Union, and has made repeated if casual references to the likelihood of the bloc breaking up. He has also called NATO obsolete, but in recent days has signaled support for the transatlantic alliance.

Those remarks, though, clearly rankled. French President Francois Hollande, who spoke with Trump last weekend, was perhaps the most openly combative in his view of the U.S. leader.

It is unacceptable that there should be -- through a certain number of statements by the president of the United States -- pressure on what Europe should or should not be, the French news agency AFP quoted Hollande as saying as he arrived at the informal summit.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel took a cooler and more pragmatic tone, telling reporters as she arrived: I have already said that Europe has its destiny in its own hands.

She said that as far as she was concerned, talks about Europe are here in the foreground and not to deal with other parts of the world.

Germany has been unhappy, however, with Trumps talk of the European common currency, the euro, being artificially undervalued, and his suggestions that Merkels government was to blame.

Heading into the meeting, EU President Donald Tusk had taken the unprecedented step of warning in a letter to European leaders that Trump posed a threat to the bloc, listing that alongside other menaces including Russian aggression, jihadist attacks and a wave of populism.

The gathering was a potentially awkward one for British Prime Minister Theresa May as she moves to implement so-called Brexit. May met with Trump last week and pressed European concerns about the degree of American support for NATO.

But Mays offer to serve as a bridge between Trump and the EU drew a tart response from the president of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaite who also took a swipe at the U.S. president.

I dont think there is a necessity for a bridge, she told the BBC. We communicate with the Americans on Twitter.

The main goal of the Malta gathering is to take steps to forge a common policy on immigration another point of contention between Trump and the EU. Many of the European leaders have been highly critical of Trumps suspension of the U.S. refugee program and his temporary ban on travel from seven Muslim-majority countries.

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European Union leaders at Malta summit bristle at Trump remarks - Los Angeles Times

The European Union has been weathering plenty of disunity in recent months. But as they gathered Friday, the blocs leaders seemed to have found common ground in growing concerns over President Trumps unexpected new policies and unconventional mode of governance.

Mainstream European political figures already worried about populist challenges and the specter of Russian interference in their own upcoming elections have been rattled by a rapid-fire series of controversial presidential directives and combative behavior, including a getting-to-know-you call with Australias prime minister that reportedly ended abruptly when Trump became irritated over a refugee agreement.

In Valletta, the ancient fortress-capital of the Mediterranean island nation of Malta, leaders arriving for the EUs first gathering since Trumps inauguration had some sharp words for the 2-week-old U.S. administration some centering on policy disagreements, and some on the presidents unorthodox style.

Both before and after he took office, Trump has been vocal in his support of Britains vote last June to exit the European Union, and has made repeated and almost offhand references to the likelihood of the bloc breaking up. He has also called NATO obsolete, but in recent days has signaled at least a degree of support for the transatlantic alliance that most European nations regard as vital to their security.

Trumps remarks have been read by many in Europe as a sign that the new U.S. president has little regard for international institutions widely credited with underpinning decades of peace and economic progress. French President Francois Hollande, who spoke with Trump last weekend, was perhaps the most openly combative in his view of the U.S. leader.

It is unacceptable that there should be through a certain number of statements by the President of the United States pressure on what Europe should or should not be, the French news agency AFP quoted Hollande as saying as he arrived at the informal summit.

More criticism came from Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern, who said tangible aspects of Trumps policies were setting off alarm bells in Europe, and from the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, who suggested that the Trump administration had not shown itself to be very detail-oriented.

In the European Union, details matter, Juncker said.

One reported contender for the post of Trumps envoy to the EU, businessman Ted Malloch, has already stirred controversy. In a BBC interview last month, Malloch appeared to liken the EU to the former Soviet Union, suggesting that maybe theres another union that needs a little taming. He later said the comment had been tongue-in-cheek.

In Malta, even some who said they were willing to take a wait-and-see attitude about the new U.S. administration were hardly positive in their assessments. The prime minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, said the U.S. presidents values were not the values Im fighting for.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel took a characteristically cooler and more pragmatic tone, telling reporters as she arrived: I have already said that Europe has its destiny in its own hands. Merkel had voiced that view after Trump seemed to waver in his backing of NATO.

Germany has been unhappy, however, with a senior Trump advisers talk of the European common currency, the euro, being artificially undervalued, and his suggestions that Merkels government was to blame. And Merkel has expressed reservations about the presidents suspension of the U.S. refugee program and his temporary ban on travel from seven Muslim-majority countries.

At their gathering, the EU leaders held closed-door talks in which they hoped to forge a strategy for individual and collective dealings with Trump. Analysts said that would be no easy task.

Its a policy sea change for an American president to openly state that he supports additional countries leaving the European Union, said Heather Conley, director of the Europe program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

We just never had an approach to foreign policy like this no one has a playbook, no one has a manual, she said.

Heading into the Malta meeting, EU President Donald Tusk had taken the unprecedented step of warning in a letter to European leaders that Trumps policies posed a potential threat to the bloc, listing that alongside other menaces including Russian aggression, jihadist attacks and a wave of populism.

The meeting was a somewhat awkward one for British Prime Minister Theresa May, who is moving to implement the so-called Brexit. May met with Trump in Washington last week andpressed European concernsabout American support for NATO, but suffered intense blow-back at home, particularly after the travel ban was announced, less than 24 hours after her departure.

Mays offer to serve as a bridge between Trump and the EU drew a tart response from one of the leaders attending the Malta talks the president of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaite, who also took a swipe at the U.S. presidents penchant for making foreign policy declarations by tweet.

I dont think there is a necessity for a bridge, the Lithuanian leader, whose Baltic states proximity to Russia renders it heavily dependent on the NATO security umbrella, told the BBC. We communicate with the Americans on Twitter.

The main goal of the gathering in Malta, on the front lines of the Mediterranean migrant crisis, was to try to find ways to stem seaborne arrivals from North Africa. The leaders endorsed a plan to provide Libyas coast guard with equipment, training and other support, and to cooperate with Libyas neighbors, including Tunisia and Egypt.

But rights groups expressed reservations about the plan, saying would-be asylum seekers could be either trapped in lawless Libya or sent back home and exposed to the same perils that caused them to flee.

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A divided European Union has one thing in common: Mistrust of Trump - Los Angeles Times

The European Union has been warned against stranding thousands of refugees in concentration camp-like prisons by making a controversial deal with Libya to stem the flow of migrants over the Mediterranean.

The country is the main launching point for hundreds of thousands of migrants who have crossed to Europe fleeing war, persecution and the dire conditions in Libya itself.

Authorities and militias stand accused of killing, shooting, torturing, detaining and exploiting asylum seekers amid the bloody chaos of the continuing civil war.

The national coastguard, being trained by Britain and other European nations, has also attacked rescue vessels run by humanitarian groups, causing 25 people to drown in one incident.

But the EU is expected to hand Libyan authorities more responsibility for refugee operations, potentially allowing the forced return of boats, following a summit in Malta today.

Theresa May and Angela Merkel are among the leaders to attend talks chaired by European Council president Donald Tusk, which come amid heightened tensions over Brexit and differing reactions to Donald Trumps policies.

As politicians gathered in Valletta on Friday morning, Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF)rescue teams said an absolute nightmare was unfolding in the Mediterranean, with theirships at full capacity as multiple rescues were still underway.

"There are not enough search and rescue vessels," MSF project coordinator Ed Taylorsaid. "There is no coastguard vessel in thearea, there are no navy vessels...we've asked for backup and [Italian authorities] can'tsend anything."

Unicef said that after the deadliest ever winter for refugees, seeing at least 190 children drown in the past three months, the lives of thousands were at stake.

Justin Forsyth, the agencys deputy executive director, said: The decisions taken at Fridays summit could literally mean the difference between life and death for thousands of children transiting or stranded in Libya. They need urgent action now.

Unicef called for the UK and other countries to safely resettle refugees and warned against violating a 1951 convention by sending them back to Libya without a proper plan to protect them.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and International Organisation for Migration (IOM), said Libya was not a safe third country.

We believe that, given the current context, it is not appropriate to consider Libya a safe third country nor to establish extraterritorial processing of asylum-seekers in North Africa, a joint statement said, urging European leaders to find humane solutions.

MSF, which staffs two rescue boats in the Mediterranean as well as providing medical care in Libya, said the EU needs a reality check if it is considering allowing migrants to be returned.

Libya is not a safe place and blocking people in the country or returning them to Libya makes a mockery of the EUs so-called fundamental values of human dignity and rule of law, said Arjan Hehenkamp, MSFs general director.

He described visits to dangerously overcrowded detention centres with no natural light or ventilation, where infections and disease are rife and inmates are starved.

Save the Children, which also runs rescue operations, said boys and girls were being beaten and raped as part of widespread abuses at the hands of smugglers and armed factions in Libya.

A Libyan coastguard boat filming a rescue by MSF's Bourbon Argos ship on 4 November 2016 (Lizzie Dearden )

Simply pushing desperate children back to a country which many describe as hell is not a solution, said Ester Asin, the charitys EU advocacy office director.

The EU is yet again outsourcing its responsibility to protect the rights of migrants and refugees with no guarantees about what will happen to the many men, women and children after they have been returned to Libya.

The route from Libya into the Central Mediterranean has become the main passage to Europe after a controversial agreement struck with Turkey last year, which dramatically reduced the number of boats crossing the Aegean Sea by seeing everyone arriving on Greek islands detained under threat of deportation.

A repeat of the EU-Turkey deal has been mooted but is considered impossible in light of the continuing conflict in Libya, where the new Government of National Accord is struggling to stop battles between a plethora of warring militias including Islamists and Isis.

Migrants are a profitable business for gangs who detain them in makeshift prisons, either holding them for ransom or forcing them into labour or prostitution amid widespread lawlessness following the British-backed ousting of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

A leaked report by German diplomats described the horrific conditions like concentration camps, where survivors described daily executions to make room for new arrivals.

The asylum seekers who manage to escape are more likely to die attempting the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean than ever before, with more than 5,000 drowning, suffocating or freezing to death in overloaded smugglers boats last year alone.

Sub-Saharan refugees sit on the deck of the Golfo Azzurro after being rescued in the Mediterranean Sea on 27 January (AP)

The number of people dying in the passage between Libya and Italy, the deadliest sea crossing in the world, is now 13 times higher than during the same period last year.

More than 1,300 migrants were rescued on Wednesday alone, with babies and young children among those found on 12 overloaded boats.

They are among more than 5,000 people who have arrived in Europe from Libya so far this year, mainly from Nigeria, Eritrea, Guinea and other African countries.

A damning report by the Unravelling the Mediterranean Migration Crisis (Medmig) found the EU partly responsible for a spike in disasters as smugglers switched from wooden boats to flimsy dinghies in a bit to lower costs and avoid detection.

European naval ships and vessels from the Frontex border agency are already patrolling Libyas coast to track movement, and new measures could include bolstering Libyas military and coastguard to carry out return operations.

As well as trying to disrupt smuggling gangs, the EU aims to deport more failed asylum seekers from Italy, using its cash to overcome resistance among African states to taking people back.

Mr Tusk said the summits main goal was to stem the flow of irregular migration from Libya to Europe in cooperation with Prime Minister Mustafa al-Sarrajs government.

It is the latest part of the Migration Partnership Framework, which was adopted by the EU last year despite opposition from more than 100 human rights organisations.

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EU Malta summit: Leaders warned against stranding thousands of refugees in 'concentration camps' in Libya deal - The Independent

New York Times

For Europe, There's a New Threat in Town: The US New York Times Like much of the world, the European Union is struggling to decipher a President Trump who seems every day to be picking a new fight with a new nation, whether friend or foe. Hopes among European leaders that Mr. Trump's bombastic tone as a candidate ... European parliament leaders call on EU to reject Trump's likely ambassador pickThe Guardian Trump's tipped EU ambassador is "malevolent", say European leadersBBC News Theresa May arrives at European Union summit in MaltaITV News The Independent -The Christian Truther -Yahoo News all 97 news articles »

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For Europe, There's a New Threat in Town: The US - New York Times

British Prime Minister Theresa Mays government on Thursday published its Brexit white paper, detailing the prime ministers 12 point plan for leaving the European Union.

Meanwhile, nearly 2,600 miles from London in Tbilisi, Georgia, people celebrated hard-won approval to travel to the EU visa-free. In Georgia, the EU is still considered the destination, not something from which to escape, it seems.

Mays white paper, titled The United Kingdoms Exit from, and New Partnership with, the European Union, came a day after the U.K. House of Commons passed a bill allowing May to begin negotiations to leave the EU.

In the paper, the May government seemed to double down on the notion that leaving the globes largest trade bloc will make Britain more, not less, global.

We are a great, global nation with so much to offer Europe and so much to offer the world, it states.

Among the 12 points enumerated in the plan are providing certainty and clarity and taking control of our own laws. Also listed is controlling immigration and, specifically, the number of EU nationals coming to the UK.

Indeed, control over European migration is to be a central point in the impending negotiations. Former chancellor George Osborne said during the debate on the Brexit bill that immigration control, and not the economy, was the governments priority.

On the other end of the EU travel spectrum stands Georgia. The eastern european country spent four years working to meet tough benchmarks to get the European Parliaments blessing for its citizens to travel without visas to the EU. Among other things, it developed policies to better handle migration and to fight against corruption and organized crime. This process itself is important for our society, David Bakradze, Georgian ambassador to the United States, told Foreign Policy.

Why? Because Georgians wanted to come closer to Europe. Europe is Georgias destiny. Its our home, said Bakradze.

And what of the reality that some in Europe are looking to leave? That is the choice that is made by the British people, by the UK citizens, Bakradze said. Our choice supports the EU.

Photo credit:VANO SHLAMOV/AFP/Getty Images

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A Banner Day for Leaving and Coming Closer to the European Union - Foreign Policy (blog)