>>>ANSA/EC starts analysing Italy-Albania migrant agreement

(see related) (ANSA) - ROME, NOV 9 - The European Commission said Thursday that it has received the memorandum of understanding that Rome and Tirana signed this week for Italy to set up centres to manage migrants in Albania and was looking at it.
    The Commission had said it requested details of the agreement after it was signed on Monday.
    "We are studying it," a Commission spokesperson said Thursday when asked about Neighbourhood and Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi describing the agreement as "interesting". "We don't have a final judgement yet, we are analysing the details".
    Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Thursday that the agreement was a "humanitarian solution" that is fully compliant with European Union regulations and international law.
    "It is not Guantanamo as some have claimed" he told reporters after the Gaza aid conference in Paris.
    Tajani said that, under the agreement "only Italian military ships" can disembark migrants and refugees in Albania, with the exception of "minors, pregnant women, and all those who present risks".
    Under the agreement Albania will receive up to 36,000 migrants and refugees a year for processing in centres under Italian jurisdiction.
    It is understood that one of the facilities will be a detention centre for asylum seekers from so-called safe countries of origin, who under Italian law are subject to accelerated refugee status determination procedures in 'border' areas so that they can in theory be repatriated more easily in the event of a negative outcome to their asylum claim.
    It may be possible for migrants to be held for up to 18 months in Albania when the agreement comes into force, Undersecretary for Implementation of the Government's Programme Giovanbattista Fazzolari said on Thursday.
    "The maximum (detention) allowed by Italian law is 18 months," Fazzolari told Rai's Porta a Porta show.
    "What happens in Albania is the same as in Italy.
    "We have created accelerated procedures - in 28 days we are able to respond to a request (for asylum).
    "The people who are not entitled to it can then be detained for up to 18 months while awaiting repatriation.
    "This is the system that we could also apply in the (migrant) centres in Albania. "This will be established when we set the rules on implementing the agreement". The undersecretary said that, while the agreement has been heavily criticised by opposition parties, it has gone down well with the Italian public.
    He also said that a parliamentary debate on the agreement may be possible but it will not be necessary for parliament to ratify it.
    5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Giuseppe Conte on Thursday dismissed the controversial agreement as an "expensive advert" for Premier Giorgia Meloni's government that the Italian people will have to foot the bill for.
    "What Meloni is selling as a temporary mass deportation will cost us a lot, we have read figures of over 80 million, 100 million euros in guarantee funds," ex-premier Conte said.
    "After a month in Albania, the migrants will be brought back to Italy, where we will either offer them asylum or give them an expulsion notice because it is not possible to repatriate them.
    "Then they will be able to roam throughout our country.
    "It is the umpteenth advert (for the government) that Italians, who are not stupid, will have to pay for".
    Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, meanwhile, hit back at Italy's centre-left Democratic Party amid reports it intended to seek to have his Socialist Party of Albania expelled from the European PES group over the agreement.
    "With total respect for the Italian PD, I would like to repeat my sole point of view," Rami said via X.
    "Trying to help Italy in this situation, where no one in Europe seems to have a solution that everyone can agree on, and it may not be the best (solution), but it is certainly the least Albania must and can do! "If this is not left-wing in Italy, never mind.
    "It seems that it is not right-wing in Albania either.
    "Perhaps it is simply right" (ANSA).