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In a hard-hitting plea socialist leader Gianni Pittella called on EU leaders to start taking the situation in his home country more seriously or it could grow to threaten the whole future of the bloc.

He said Eastern European countries point blank refusal to take in refugees under the clubs quota scheme was unacceptable and backed calls to strip them of their Brussels funding.

And the Italian MEP, president of the Socialist and Democrat grouping in the EU parliament, warned that unless the migration issue is sorted it will simply harden divisions and rip the bloc apart.

The EU has been grown into chaos by the recent upsurge in arrivals to Italy, which has exposed stark differences within the different member states over how to deal with mass migration.

Eastern European countries like Hungary and Poland have predictably refused to take in any asylum seekers, but Rome has been alarmed at the extent to which it has also been abandoned to its fate by key players like France and Germany.

With newly elected Emmanuel Macron keen to strike a tough tone on migration as he looks to win over supporters of Marine Le Pen, and Angela Merkel facing her own election battle in September, little help has been on offer.

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Austrian, meanwhile, even threatened to deploy its armed forces to the Alpine border with Italy in order to seal it off if there was a fresh jump in the number of arrivals over the summer.

As a result Italy has been forced to take things into its own hands, with Rome threatening to shut its ports to migrant boats and targeting NGO rescue vessels it accuses of colluding with people smugglers to aid illegal migration.

Mr Pittella said that despite warnings from the Italian government, most EU member state continue to ignore the situation and said the political will to act on migration had disappeared with the front page headlines.

Writing for EUobserver, he warned: Hundreds of thousands of migrants that have been rescued by the Italian navy and are now waiting in reception centres or being housed by local authorities, many of which are stretched to their limits."

We are reaching another tipping point

Gianni Pittella

He told EU leaders: Ultimately, if we do not adapt the rules and structures of our migration policy, so that all member states share responsibility and have an interest in addressing the issue, then divisions will harden between those that face the brunt of the crisis and those who ignore it.

We are reaching another tipping point. If we continue with the failed approach of the last two years then this could become a systemic crisis that threatens the EU itself.

Mr Pittella said it was simply not acceptable that EU leaders have put off a special summit on the issue of migration until the Autumn, saying it shows they are not taking the problem seriously.

And he called for radical reform including a centralised European asylum policy that allocates refugees, but also so-called economic migrants, in a fair and transparent way.

Such a system would make the relocation system permanent, with sanctions for member states that refuse to take their fair share of refugees but would be vociferously opposed especially by Eastern Europe.

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The Italian MEP wrote: Demographic changes, continuing instability in the Middle East and North Africa, and long-term issues such as poverty and climate change mean that large-scale migration to Europe is going to be a fact for decades to come.

We are a continent of 500 million people and one of the richest regions of the planet the arrival of a few hundred thousand refugees and migrants is manageable if we organise ourselves effectively.

It is clear this is the only viable option, yet certain national governments are still actively undermining any attempts to fix the system.

This is most evident in Hungary, where prime minister Victor Orban is demonising migrants and the EU to try and bolster his flagging poll numbers. We cannot allow this to continue.

More than 100,000 people have arrived in Italy already this year, with EU leaders and officials saying that the vast majority are economic migrants who will not qualify for asylum.

Eurocrats and leaders including Angela Merkel have promised to speed up the rate of deportations to tackle the crisis, whilst plans are also being floated for the establishment of EU camps within Libya.

See more here:
Migrant crisis - Italian MEP warns refugee arrivals threaten EU's ... - Express.co.uk