France called on its EU partners Thursday to make migrant crossings towards Britain more of a ‘European issue’, as Paris seeks greater support in stemming the flow across the English Channel.

‘We are talking about an external border of the European Union… and therefore about a European challenge. We need to have European discussions,’ French junior interior minister Marie‑Pierre Vedrenne said ahead of a meeting with her EU counterparts.

The European Commission is due soon to propose to the bloc’s 27 member states an action plan on migration in the Channel, with France hoping for more help with policing and combating people smugglers.

More than 41,000 migrants landed on England’s southern coast last year — the second-highest annual number since records were started in 2018.

France has long been a launchpad for migrants hoping to cross the Channel and start a better life in Britain.

Paris announced Wednesday it had extended a ‘one-in, one-out’ scheme that enables the UK to deport some migrants without a right to stay, while accepting an equal number from France who are likely to have their asylum claim granted.

But France wants the sensitive issue to move beyond the framework of bilateral talks with Britain and be taken up more fully by the EU in its dealings with the United Kingdom.

Vedrenne said it was ‘fundamental’ to tackle the matter jointly with the bloc’s other member states.

Paying smugglers thousands of dollars, migrants often board overloaded rubber dinghies to make the dangerous and sometimes deadly journey across one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.

Across the border from France, Belgian authorities are also concerned about a new, still limited phenomenon of migrant departures towards England, with more than 400 people intercepted attempting to cross the Channel so far this year.