Migrants and refugees arrive in the port of Messina | Giovanni Isolino/AFP via Getty Images Matteo Renzi proposes European ‘migration bonds’ Italian prime minister suggests common debt issuance to fund the response to the refugee crisis.

Matteo Renzi has relaunched the idea of EU countries issuing joint debt, known as euro bonds, but in this case the Italian prime minister suggests using them to finance a strategy for tackling the migration crisis at source.

In a letter, sent on Friday to European Council President Donald Tusk and Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, including a discussion paper titled "Migration Compact," Renzi outlines a strategy for enhancing cooperation with countries in Africa to stem the flow of migrants and strengthen their border controls.

Tusk welcomed the proposal in a tweet and said: "Agree to work on ambitious plan in EU & G7/20 on cooperating w/3rd countries to stem migration."

Among the tools suggested in the document, Renzi proposes “common EU migration bonds to be issued to fund migration management in member states and finance the migration compact goals.”

Common debt issuance by eurozone countries has often been floated by debt-ridden southern European nations, including Italy, but Germany has repeatedly rejected the idea of mutualizing debt. Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, has stressed the need to find alternative ways to fund the bloc's response to the migration crisis, suggesting in January that this could come from a European tax on gasoline.

In the four-page discussion paper, Renzi also calls for "joint EU [refugee] return operations to be financed with the EU budget.”

Like Greece, Italy is a frontline state in the migration crisis. According to government data, the number of migrants arriving on its shores from North Africa has risen in the first three months of the year. According to the Renzi letter, arrivals along the central Mediterranean route are "mainly ... economic migrants” who are unlikely to obtain asylum in Italy.