European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini says the reported deaths of hundreds of migrants over the weekend and today has "finally" fully woken up the EU to the evil of human trafficking.
She said that gathering 41 EU foreign and home affairs ministers around a table in Luxembourg at less than 24 hours' notice to discuss answers to the tragedy "finally - finally - gives the idea of a new sense of urgency, a new sense of political will" to tackle the crisis.
Until the weekend the EU had not planned any special meeting and initially, foreign ministers had no plans to directly discuss migration at Monday's meeting of foreign ministers.
But as the reality of the disasters in the Mediterranean started to sink in, EU President Donald Tusk called for an emergency meeting of government leaders, set for next Thursday.
Over the past week, the EU has faced increasing criticism over why it has taken it so long to jump into action. "As a human being and as a mother, this is also the question that I asked myself in these hours," Mogherini said.