(ANSA) - Bolzano, November 18 - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Friday "Italy is doing the impossible" in tackling the asylum seeker crisis. "We must not abandon Italy and Greece just because they're in the wrong place, albeit a sunny one," he said. "Europe needs to show Italy its solidarity". Italy and Greece are the first landfall for people fleeing across the Mediterranean from wars and persecution in Africa and the Middle East, especially the country of Syria where a civil war has been raging for six years.

Juncker went on to say that "the measures Europe has decided on must be applied".

"Syria practically borders on the EU and (its refugees) must be taken in, independently of their religious faith," he said.

The European Commission chief also said Britain must keep in mind that it can't be "a full-time taker and a part-time giver" in its relationship with the EU after the Brexit.

Juncker was speaking at Bolzano Free University conference on the 70th anniversary of the autonomy of Italy's northern Alto Adige province bordering on Austria and Switzerland.

