SALZBURG - European Council President Donald Tusk on Thursday said that the European Union will step up cooperation with North African countries such as Egypt, on issues of immigration and economy.

Tusk made the remarks in a press conference following the EU informal summit in Salzburg.

He said that the cooperation should be a broader vision of partnership, instead of being limited to immigration issues or combating illegal immigrants.

He said that EU leaders supported dialogue with North African countries such as Egypt at the summit. The parties agreed to organize the EU-Arab League summit in Egypt in February next year.

Tusk said that the debate on immigration has shown that the EU member states may not be able to agree on every issue, but they agree with the main goal of combating illegal immigration. This means strengthening external border protection and strengthening cooperation with third countries.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that on the protection of external borders, he was not very optimistic in the past, but now he is optimistic, looking forward to the results during the Austrian presidency.

The EU leaders at the summit reached consensus on strengthening cooperation with North African countries on economic and immigration issues and agreed to introduce measures to strengthen EU external border protection by the end of this year.