Italy's EU partners on Thursday
voiced "strong concern" about Italy's stance on revising the
Sophia mission's rules on migrant landings.
They said they were concerned by Rome's decision, announced
at the COPS on Wednesday, to no longer accept the "automatic"
landing of migrants in its ports of those saved by the Eunavfor
Med's Sophia op.
The worries were expressed in the conclusions of the COPS
meeting in Brussels.
The partners, however, said they were ready to go into the
question in greater detail at a meeting Friday.
The COPS, whose English acronym is PSC, is the EU's Political
and Security Committee.
It is a permanent body within the European Union dealing with
Common Foreign and Security Policy issues, including Common
Security and Defence Policy.
A spokesperson for the European Commission said Thursday "we
will assess the consequences of the Italian request" on changing
the Sophia groundrules on where to offload migrants.
"Italy has not yet formalised the request, so we'll see at
tomorrow's meeting," the spokesperson said.
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