>Italy has stalled an EU leaders’ summit until a deal is reached on migration — a dramatic escalation of tensions at a gathering that could decide German chancellor Angela Merkel’s fate.
>Rome blocked decisions on the economy, security and digital issues in the meeting’s opening session in Brussels on Thursday as it sought “concrete” help to deal with its own influx of asylum-seekers.
>“Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,” one bloc diplomat said of the Italian position, as the heads of government headed for what threatened to be a fractious working dinner. One senior EU figure attending the meeting described Italy as “holding us hostage”.
>The European Council of leaders cancelled a planned early-evening press conference and a spokesperson issued a terse statement saying that “as one Member reserved their position on the entire conclusions, no conclusions have been agreed at this stage”.
>Italy set the stage for further drama over dinner as it prepared to propose ending a ban on new European Bank for Reconstruction and Development lending to Russia, in a sign of the new government in Rome’s wish for closer ties with Moscow. That idea is likely to face opposition from some other EU member states who favour a tough line on Russia, in response to the poisoning in the UK of Sergei Skripal, a double agent, and his daughter Yulia.
>Rome’s disruptive tactics at the summit further imperil Ms Merkel after she was given an ultimatum by her conservative coalition allies to come up with a pan-European approach to deal with asylum seekers who reach Germany but who have already been registered elsewhere.
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