A European Commission spokesman said that Italy's migrant measures such as its controversial deal with Albania to process migrants in Italian.-run centres in the Balkan country must comply with EU law, according to ANSA.

The first 12 migrants to be taken to Albania were sent back to Italy after a Rome court upheld a European Court of Justice ruling that their home countries, Egypt and Bangladesh, were not safe - a blow to the scheme which Premier Giorgia Meloni has vowed to overcome by drafting a list of safe countries that is stronger in legal terms and which could not be challenged by the EU court.

The spokesman said the EC was working on a lsit of safe countries too.

"We are aware of the ruling in Italy and we are in contact with the Italian authorities: at the moment there is no European list of safe third countries, the member states have national lists, but it is expected that we will work on it", said the spokesman.

Returning to the Rome-Tirana Protocol, the spokesperson explained that "national law is applied, but also standards related to international protection that are provided by EU law.

"We have also said that all these measures must be fully compliant with Community law and must not weaken it".