“Front” of 10 countries, among them Greece and Italyagainst Sweden’s immigration proposal.

The 10 countries on Thursday refused to support reform of the European asylum system at a crucial meeting of EU interior ministers in Luxembourg, and negotiations continue to find a compromise solution.

“We have a problem to support this text”, said Italian Minister Matteo Piandedosi.

Italy is asking that migrants who are not granted asylum be allowed to be sent back to their “safe” transit countries, even if they have no particular ties to that country. Germany opposes this idea.

Greece also opposed. “Like Italy, we are not ready to give the green light,” said General Secretary of Public Order Michael Karamalakis. “We are disappointed because our concerns were not taken into account,” he added, referring to the issue of transit countries, according to AFP.

Another Mediterranean country, Malta, announced it would abstain from voting on the compromise proposal presented by Sweden, which holds the presidency of the EU Council for the current six months.

Poland, Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria and Slovakia they also refused to support the proposal. Denmark and Latvia expressed their objections.

Today’s meeting in Luxembourg is considered “key” to the difficult negotiations on the European Pact on migration and asylum.

One of the proposals submitted by Sweden provides the mandatory, but “flexible”, European solidarity towards the countries receiving the immigrants. Member countries would thus be obliged to accept a certain number of asylum seekers (resettlement) from people arriving in an EU country under migratory pressure. Otherwise you should they provide her with a financial contribution.

The second text being considered by ministers obliges member states to put in place at the border an accelerated procedure for examining asylum claims for certain migrants who clearly cannot be selected for such protection because they come from a country considered “safe”. And this with the aim of facilitating their return to it.

The approval of the proposals is done by an enhanced majority, which means that the positive vote of 15 of the 27 countries which in total represent 65% of the EU population is required. For this the support of the Mediterranean countries and in particular of Italy is considered critical.