Jane Onyanga-Omara

USA TODAY

Pope Francis called Tuesday on a "haggard" Europe to create a unified and fair immigration policy in a speech to the European Parliament that ended in a standing ovation.

In the first of two addresses on his one-day visit to the parliament's base in Strasbourg, eastern France, the pontiff called for legislators to promote policies that create jobs and accept immigrants.

The pope said the European Union often gives the impression "of being somewhat elderly and haggard, feeling less and less a protagonist in a world which frequently regards it with aloofness, mistrust and even suspicion," the Catholic News Agency reported.

He told the audience he wanted to bring a message of hope to Europeans distrustful of their institutions, burdened by economic crisis and spiritually adrift in a culture he said no longer values the dignity of human beings.

"A Europe which is no longer open to the transcendent dimension of life is a Europe which risks slowly losing its own soul," he said. "We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a vast cemetery!

"The boats landing daily on the shores of Europe are filled with men and women who need acceptance and assistance."

Tens of thousands of migrants and refugees make the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean from north Africa to Europe each year. Italian officials estimate that more than 2,000 people died trying to reach the country in 2014 alone.

In September, up to 500 migrants may have drowned when the boat taking them from Egypt to Malta sank, along with 160 people who died when their vessel capsized off the coast of Libya en route to Italy in a separate incident.

The pope's visit came 25 years after St. John Paul II traveled to Strasbourg to address a continent still divided by the Iron Curtain.

Pope Francis addressed the Council of Europe, the continent's main human rights body, later Tuesday. He said the Holy See intends to continue its cooperation with the council.

Members of the European Parliament are elected by voters in the 28 European Union member states every five years. The roles of the parliament and the council include debating and passing European laws.

Contributing: Associated Press