MEPs opened their plenary sitting on 29 April 2015 by debating the EU's response to the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council chief Donald Tusk.

In a resolution passed during the day's voting session later, they called on the Commission to set a "binding quota" for how the numbers of asylum seekers should be shared out between EU member states.

The non-binding text also called for member states to provide the "necessary resources" to search-and-rescue operations, and more cash for Frontex, the EU border agency.

It also urged "the strongest possible" criminal sanctions against people smugglers.

The debate had been called to allow MEPs to give their response to last week's emergency meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.

At the summit, the leaders pledged to triple funding of the EU search-and-rescue operation, Triton, to around €120m (£86m) - taking it back to the spending levels of Mare Nostrum, an Italian-run operation that was cancelled last year.

They also pledged to look at ways to capture and destroy smugglers' boats and deploy immigration officers to non-EU countries.

A full text report on the debate can be found on the European Parliament live page.

The European Parliament's disclaimer on the use of simultaneous interpretations can be found here.