French President Emmanuel Macron
and Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte on Friday reached agreement
on issues including migrants and the euro.
The Paris talks sealed peace after friction over the Aquarius
migrant ship.
Conte told a press conference that that he had "cleared
things up" with Macron and the two countries had "managed a
difficult moment".
"The exchange we had made it possible to agree on several
issues," Macron.
"Cooperation between our countries is indispensable,
especially on immigration and the eurozone".
Conte said they had agreed that "we must turn the page on
migrants" after he proposed setting up hotspots in countries of
origin and transit including Libya, Niger and other sub-Saharan
nations.
Conte said that "no one in Europe can wash their hands of
the migrant crisis".
An EU-wide rather than a national response to the migrant
crisis is needed, Macron said.
"France, as well as Italy, must manage this migrant crisis
and we must give responses together," he said.
"We must adopt European responses, there cannot be national
responses".
Macron said that "Italy has had massive migrant arrivals, but
in the last year we have reduced them by 77%.
"France does not benefit from this situation.
"If Italy has had 18,000 asylum applications in the first
four months of 2018, France has had 26,000".
Macron said that "we hope to go forward with our European
partners in the coming months on a deep reform of the Dublin
rules for better responsibility and burden sharing" on migrants.
He said "the system is not working today...we must find
mechanisms that allow solidarity and we must make sure the
geographical situation doesn't put us in unsustainable political
situations".
Conte, who announced an Italo-French summit in Rome this
autumn, said that "the Dublin regulation must change: Italy is
against and is preparing is own proposal that it looks forward
to sharing with the other partners in view of formalising it at
the next Austrian EU presidency".
Macron said that "I don't trust these formulas that have
never brought much luck in history" referring to the "axis of
the willing" proposed by Austria with Germany and Italy to face
the migrant crisis.
Conte said that all the EU, not just the proposed axis
between Austria, Germany and Italy, should be "willing" to
tackle the migrant crisis.
"I'd like an axis of the willing that spans the whole
European arc, that's what we aspire to", he said.
While Italy has signalled that other NGO ships may be
rejected, Macron said that if a ship was in French waters "we
will take charge of it".
On the eurozone, the two leaders agreed that reforms are
needed.
Macron said that there was a "clear sharing of views" on the
eurozone with Rome.
He stressed the importance of completing banking union to
fully stabilise the eurozone" and to have a eurozone budget "for
greater investments."
Conte said that Italy was favourable to sharing more risks in
the eurozone.
"We are favourable to a strengthening of the EU's economic
governance.
"Italy is favourable to reach advances on the mechanisms of
risk sharing, we have remained behind on this, being focused
above all on the reduction of risks".
Finally, to seal the refound peace, Macron said that he
"loved" Italy and "hoped for common success".
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