The President of the European Parliament (EP) called for massive investments in Africa on Tuesday, warning that millions of African migrants could arrive otherwise.

In a forum with Italy’s ANSA news service, Antonio Tajani said: “If the problem of Africa is not tackled—drought, malnutrition—we will have millions and millions and Africans pushing (to enter Europe) and dams and walls will not be sufficient (to hold them back).”

Tajani said that fixing Africa’s problems would require an investment of “billions and billions” of euros.

The words of the EP President echoed recent remarks by European Council President Donald Tusk, who stated earlier this month that Europe cannot cope with the massive influx of migrants crossing from North Africa into Italy.

Tusk called for measures to shut down the maritime migrant route across the Strait of Sicily.

“The flow of migrants from Libya into Italy and the EU is not sustainable,” Tusk said following a meeting between European and Libyan officials.

“Europe has proved it is able to close down irregular routes of migration, as we did on the Eastern Mediterranean route,” Tusk said. “We have discussed the example of our cooperation with Turkey and other countries in this part of the region. Now it is time to close down the route from Libya to Italy.”

In his comments Tuesday, EP President Tajani also expressed his disapproval of the rumored appointment of Ted Malloch as the new U.S. ambassador to the European Union.

“We are ready to listen to all the advice and all the criticisms but we are not subject to anyone and we don’t take orders from anyone,” Tajani said. “We are not willing to take insults from persons who probably don’t know the European Union who the European Parliament has declared unwelcome.”

In a recent essay, Malloch declared the European integration project to be a “failure” that was evident to all.

“The European Union has become undemocratic and bloated by both bureaucracy and rampant anti-Americanism,” he said.

“It may be time to re-evaluate key U.S. assumptions about Europe. This means America should reappraise its entire relationship with Europe and its future union or disunion,” he said.

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