"It is better idea to leave this for national states that have the means to control their own borders by themselves," Matteo Salvini said.
Salvini added his party did not agree with the EU initiative that will create a joint EU border service with a greater mandate to better protect the bloc's external frontiers.
"Everything that Europe decides on the Brussels’ level, including initiatives in economy, trade, agriculture turns out wrong," Salvini argued, saying that Brussels should do more to tackle the issue of migration at its roots.
The leader of the eurosceptic right-wing party suggested that refugee centers should be created close to the migrants’ countries of origin in Africa and the Middle East – in Tunisia, Morocco, and Libya – with financial support from the European Union.
The European Commission proposed on Tuesday to set up a new border guard force, prompting fears that its EU mandate will allow for deployment without consent of the host country.
The European Union has been grappling with an escalating refugee crisis since the start of 2015. In his address on September 9, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker stressed that a unified refugee policy required stronger joint efforts to secure the bloc’s external borders.
