European Parliament President Martin Schulz uses visit to Pope Francis to underline the need to support the Lampedusa victims and promote dialogue as a force for understanding.

Presidential visit to the Holy See

A guard of honour at the Holy See  for EP President Martin Schulz,

making an official visit to Pope Francis  seven months after he began his papacy.

It was an extraordinary,  open-minded meeting.

We spoke about Lampedusa  and the question of a kind of immigration

from regions with civil wars,  natural disasters and hopelessness.

More than 300 illegal immigrants,  mostly from North Africa, died last week

when their overcrowded vessel  caught fire and sank off Lampedusa.

MEPs held a minute's silence  for the victims.

Europe must prepare a strategy  for temporary protection,

and on the other hand  we must urgently discuss a system

of legal immigration to the European Union.

President Schulz extended an invitation  to Pope Francis to address MEPs,

something last seen exactly 25 years ago,  in October 1988,

when Pope John Paul II visited Strasbourg.

Then, it was on to  the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome

for a public discussion on the fight  against poverty and marginalisation.