Italy is anything but isolated within
the European Union when it comes to tackling irregular
migration, Premier Giorgia Meloni said on Thursday.
"I am satisfied, we are far from being isolated," she told
reporters on arriving for the third meeting of the 47 ,members
of the European Political Community (EPC) in Granada, Spain.
"The perception is evolving towards the protection of legal
migration flows," she added after the 27 EU members states on
Wednesday reached agreement on the key text on crisis regulation
in the Union's new pact on migration and asylum, in what Deputy
premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani later described as a
"success for Italy".
Meloni also said Italy "wants there to be a non-paternalistic
approach" to Africa, calling for "a Europe that believes in it
as a whole".
The premier reiterated that she "understood" Tunisian President
Kais Saied after he rejected a 127 million euro aid package from
the EU on grounds Tunisia "does not accept anything resembling
charity or favour, because our country and our people do not
want sympathy and do not accept it when it is without respect",
according to a press release.
"I believe that Saied, with whom I have a good relationship,
spoke first of all to his public opinion, I understand what he
said," said Meloni.
"Tunisia has a problem that is no different from ours, there is
illegal immigration there too," she continued.
On the government's Mattei Plan to boost energy partnerships
with African countries and cooperation on halting migrant flows,
Meloni said it had "reached a point of arrival with a regulation
on governance", adding that she would present the plan to
parliament in November.
Meloni also said she was due to have a bilateral meeting with
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday.
"It will be an opportunity to discuss how to make progress
particularly on the external dimension" of migration management
through the strengthening of cooperation with countries of
origin and transit.
On Monday sources said contacts were underway between Berlin and
Rome at a technical level to try to resolve a row over German
funding of NGOs carrying out search and rescue in the central
Mediterranean and disembarking rescued migrants and refugees in
Italy.
A bilateral between Meloni and Scholz at the EPC meeting in
Spain later in the week would depend on the progress of the
technical contacts underway, the sources added.
Meanwhile on Thursday Meloni and British Prime Minister Rishi
Sunak co-hosted an initially restricted meeting with their
counterparts from the Netherlands (Mark Rutte) and Albania (Edi
Rama) to discuss possible operational initiatives, both
bilaterally and multilaterally, to combat human trafficking.
The format - which remained open to other leaders - was thus
defined to have two EU and two non-EU countries represented, two
from Northern Europe subject to secondary movements, and two
from Southern Europe mainly subject to primary movements.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and French
President Emmanuel Macron later joined the meeting taking place
on the sidelines of the EPC summit.
They reportedly discussed how to strengthen operational
cooperation in order to raise the level of the fight against
international criminal organisations that traffic in human
beings.
Europe has had enough diagnosis of the migrant issue and now
concrete action is needed to stem migrant flows and beat the
traffickers, they agreed.
Everyone has the same problem with traffickers, both the
countries of arrival and those involved in secondary movements,
the summit agreed.
Now what is needed is concrete action, moving from the diagnosis
to the cure, the six said in voicing a common awareness.
The six leaders went on to approve eight action points.
From 'robust' action against traffickers to greater support for
partner countries, the IOM and the UNHCR in assisting migrants
in repatriations and support for North African countries in
protecting borders and against entry: these were some of the
eight points agreed in a written document.
Macron tolf press conference after the summit that France had
made binding commitments against traffickers with Rome.
"We want to develop at the level of the European Political
Community a fight against illegal immigration' and in the new
6-way format on migration - with France, Italy, the United
Kingdom, the Netherlands, Albania and the EU Commission - more
binding commitments will be elaborated which will be discussed
at the next summit organised by the United Kingdom," Macron
said.
The six partners aim to implement "joint actions", Macron
stressed, explaining that it is not only a matter of "preventing
illegal trafficking but also working with third countries of
origin and transit".
Italy is bearing the brunt of rising migrant flows across the
central Mediterranean while Albania is a major country of
transit for migrants along the so-called Balkan route.
Both Meloni and Sunak have declared war on the criminal gangs
that traffic migrants, in Italy's case in small boats from north
Africa and in Britain's case in small boats across the English
Channel from France.
Rutte was present in Tunis when Meloni signed a Memorandum of
Understanding on migration this summer.
Also present was von der Leyen, who has repeatedly said the EU
stands with Rome on migration.
Tunisia "formally asked" the European Union for 60 million euros
in aid and is free to return it if chooses, said European
Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi
on X.
The commissioner added that the disbursement is not linked to
the EU-Tunisia memorandum of understanding signed in July but
concerns budget support measures taken since 2021.
On Monday Saied said the country would not accept "charity"
funds on grounds they "contradict the memorandum of
understanding signed in Tunis in the spirit that prevailed at
the Rome conference last July".
A further 67 million euros of aid under the MOU was also
rejected as "alms".
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