Despite the more than 18,000 landings in Italy in the first months of 2021 and the reception centers now close to collapse with 77,000 migrants, Italy is still not among the top five EU countries for the highest number of migrants welcomed, which would therefore trigger an almost relocation automatic in the rest of Europe. Therefore, the negotiations that the Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi is preparing to open at the EU summit on 24 and 25 June dedicated to the issue of migrants will be all uphill. And it is in view of that appointment of great impact also for domestic politics (the issue was at the center of the last meeting between Draghi and Salvini) that the Prime Minister is weaving his web to forge the necessary alliances.
Objective: new Malta agreement with relocation automatisms
Today in Barcelona Draghi talked about it in the bilateral with the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and next Monday he will address the dossier in a face-to-face interview with Chancellor Angela Merkel. The goal is to redefine the 2019 Malta agreement but by creating an almost automatic mechanism for the redistribution of migrants rescued in Italy at least among a number of “willing” countries, in addition to Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Malta, Romania. Draghi and his Spanish colleague Sanchez agreed on the need for the European Union to finalize the Pact for migration and asylum, the achievement of which “necessarily requires taking into account the vision of the countries of first entry”. In view of the next European Council Draghi and Sanchez share “the urgent appeal to Europe to obtain a common response to the challenge of migration, balancing the principles of humanity, solidarity and shared responsibility”.
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German elections put a brake on the agreement on migrants
However, the forthcoming elections in Germany represent a brake on finalizing the Pact for Migration. However, it is not excluded that Draghi could wrest from Merkel next Monday a half commitment not to hinder the strategies of Italy, France and Spain too much. For its part, the Italian government is moving towards the management of migrants from Libya, favoring the stabilization of the country that can lead to the withdrawal of foreign troops (Russian, Syrian and Turkish), the resumption of economic investments and the closure of detention camps. Italy will also work to encourage assisted repatriation through funding from United Nations and IOM agencies and to enter into European readmission agreements with the countries from which migratory flows originate.
Mediterranean and European vision unites Rome with Madrid
If with Germany there is the unknown elections with Sanchez’s Spain the agreement is total: “The Mediterranean vision and the Europeanism of Spain and Italy are two of our strengths in Europe, where we contribute the more the more united let’s go », diplomatic sources affirm. The two Italian and Spanish leaders also spoke of the commitment to an economic and social recovery which “must be inclusive because social cohesion is central and this is reflected in the recovery plans”. Both aim at “just transitions, so that all citizens can benefit without exception from a growth that must not forget the most vulnerable and that recovers the objectives of gender equality, and social and territorial cohesion”.
Italy-Spain united in the construction of a more modern Europe
Italy and Spain, Draghi recalls, “are not only united by deep historical, political and cultural ties. They are strategic partners in the ambitious projects we have ahead of us in Europe. The ecological transition, digitalization, the transformation of our cities. Together with France, Germany and the other Member States, we want to build a more modern, competitive and supportive European Union. That it overcomes the traditional divisions between North and South, and shows itself united in comparison with the other global powers of our time ».