It is always the knot of Libya and respect for human rights in the North African country that make today’s vote, Thursday 15 July, on military missions abroad critical. There is no particular objection to the continuation of the missions which involve about 6500 Italian soldiers in 40 missions. But there is tension in the majority after yesterday, July 14, in the Defense and Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chamber, the Government gave a negative opinion to the amendment of the Democratic Party which asked to “verify the possibility that from the next programming there are the conditions to overcome cooperation with the Libyan Coast Guard ». The executive asked for corrections.
The standoff between the Democratic Party and the Government and the final agreement
But the Democrats have insisted that the European Union also enter the “game” of training the Libyan corps. In the evening the amendment was resubmitted with a linguistic and formal change and approved. The approved amendment asks Palazzo Chigi to undertake “to verify the conditions for overcoming the mission” of assistance to the Libyan Coast Guard from the next programming, transferring its functions to other missions “to consolidate Italy’s role in Libya, rationalize the command structure and strengthen the European role ». So the unexpected match within the majority ends in the evening to the satisfaction of the Democrats.
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The secretary of the Democratic Party Enrico Letta, who as premier had launched the Mare nostrum operation for the rescue of migrants in the Strait of Sicily, requested that the memorandum of cooperation between Italy and Libya through which our country since 2017 has financed the Libyan coast guard to operate rescue at sea and blocking departures is entrusted to the European Union within six months.
Dems demand closure of detention centers in Libya and signing of the Geneva Convention
The dems had proposed not to authorize support for the Libyan Coast Guard and to suspend its operations until there is a definitive revision of the Memorandum and it is not guaranteed or demonstrated by the Libyan authorities that people rescued at sea are not returned to the centers of detention and the Libyan government will not have acceded to the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees. Lia Quartapelle, Head of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Party had explained that: “We have a clear strategy: to rationalize the command of the 4 missions in Libya and we want Italy not to be alone but Europe too”. But Laura Boldrini of the Democratic Party had been mandatory: “I will not vote in the Chamber – he announced – the provision on international missions in relation to the part on Libya”. Even more drastic is the national secretary of the Italian Left Nicola Fratoianni according to whom “Italy’s migration policy of recent decades based on continuous emergency must be canceled”.
The Irini Command (EU) shared a program with the Libyan Coast Guard
The same Minister of Defense, Lorenzo Guerini a week ago illustrating the measure in Parliament had not, however, evaded the Libya problem. Guerini had recalled that the overall commitment abroad “takes the form of 40 missions for 2021, providing for the confirmation of the 38 international missions already in progress and the start of 2 new operations in the Strait of Hormuz and in Somalia”. On Libya he noted that «in the last conversation with Prime Minister Dibaibah, I was able to highlight the results obtained by Irini and underline the importance of the EU Mission’s resuming training for the Libyan Coast Guard. The command of the Mission has already shared with the local authorities a hypothesis of a training program, functional to the training of personnel in the management of crisis and emergency situations, in compliance with human and gender rights ».