The first speaker at the special European Council on immigration issues in the Mediterranean was European Parliament president Martin Schulz.

Speaking immediately afterwards at a press conference, Mr Schulz underlined the complexity of the issues being debated.

For instance, one has to look at the entire refugee problem, he said, including the millions streaming out of Syria. There are no less than 12 million migrants in France alone.

The crisis which caused the meeting of the council is a real crisis but Europe must do much more than commiserate.

To tackle the crisis as should be done needs money, big money. There is talk now of reinventing Mare Nostrum, then of even extending it, of action against the traffickers, of the use of naval units. This is far more than is being done, and even the barebones as outlined above are far, far more than the EU is spending on any of its projects.

Nevertheless, when he spoke to his colleagues at the European Parliament this morning, they told  him this is not enough.

Fundamentally, many agree that unless the region is stabilised, it will still keep pushing people to try and cross the sea. That the traffickers' vessels should be disabled is understood, but they have to be found first and disabled so that they will not be used again to transport immigrants.

Fundamentally, the people of Europe are expecting concrete steps from today's meeting and will be disappointed if anything less is produced. Parliament will be very vocal in showing its disappointment if that is the case.

Asked about what will be the reactions by the Far Right parties all over Europe if the Council comes up with more help to migrants, Mr Schulz countered by saying he has been in Berlin these past days and he was amazed with the huge wave of solidarity and concern he saw there.