Europe needs to beef up its emerging EU border patrol force, tackle employers who employ illegal migrant workers and forge a new policy on immigration.
It should also implement institutional reform before it sanctions any new enlargement of the union, the president of the European parliament, Josep Borrell, said yesterday.
In his final address to the European Council as president, Mr Borrell urged leaders to move towards a common immigration policy to help deal with a tide of African immigrants crossing the Mediterranean to states such as Spain and Italy.
He said the EU needed to expand the powers of Frontex, the fledgling EU border agency that is patrolling the Mediterranean, adopt qualified majority decision-making rather than unanimity in migration decisions and tackle employers who offer illegal jobs.
Clandestine workers were often channelled into member states by the Mafia, he added.
Mr Borrell made his comments to the European Council before EU leaders met over dinner to discuss a range of proposals to better manage Europe's borders.
These proposals include establishing a permanent coastal patrol network at the southern maritime borders of the union and creating a central register of EU equipment and personnel to take part in these missions.
They also propose strengthening and deepening co-operation with the "countries of origin" of migrants. Diplomats said the discussions had broadly supported these proposals.
Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said Europe needed an immigration policy that focused on fighting poverty in Africa, opening more doors to migrants who wanted to work legally in Europe apart from the asylum system and saving lives in the Mediterranean.
Immigration has dominated the political debate in southern member states such as Spain, Malta and Italy.
However, states in northern Europe have been less keen to follow steps toward a common immigration policy.