Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has criticized Friday's European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling on the classification of safe countries of origin. She said the decision further restricted the already limited room for manoeuvre of governments.

The European Union's top court is to rule on Friday on a list issued by Italy of countries labelled as safe enough for asylum seekers to be returned there. The list is part of an effort by the right-wing government in Rome to speed up the vetting of asylum requests and to allow fewer people to enter Italy.

A ruling by the EU's top court has dealt a further blow to Italy's attempts to create a fast-track system in Albania for processing asylum applications offshore. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has said that the way the Italian government currently defines whether a country is "safe" to return someone whose application is rejected contravenes EU law.