BRUSSELS. An extraordinary European summit to discuss immigration, to try to find a truly European solution to an issue that is once again animating debate and agendas. Italy relaunches the issue of asylum seekers, with the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, raising it on the occasion of her first participation, as head of government, at the summit of the European Council. “It is a central theme for Italy”, she reminded the other 26 leaders. Well-informed sources report that in his speech Meloni would have pushed for the need to reopen the dossier, because it is “a complex issue on which the Member States sometimes have different visions, but on which it is important to give a political signal and a clear commitment from part of the EU and, if necessary, also by placing the issue at the center of an ad hoc summit”.
The occasion could be February 9, the date marked on the calendar as a possible moment for the leaders to meet. They have given the mandate to the European Commission to put on the table, by the beginning of 2023, a European proposal that can respond to the Inflation Reduction Act, the measure launched by the United States to counter the increase in inflation. The extraordinary summit could be used to discuss this and, for the occasion, also immigration.
Sure, a vertex can have different formats. At the level of heads of state and government, or even at the level of relevant ministers (Home Affairs). Something that will have to be defined, if anything were to proceed as evoked by the Italian leader.
Meloni’s intervention was not accidental. Among the various issues covered by the European Council underway in Brussels there are also relations with the countries of the so-called “southern neighbourhood” (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria and Tunisia). With these, the EU would like new cooperation aimed at limiting and preventing the departure of asylum seekers to Europe. This is where the debate reignited.
The Netherlands and Austria wanted to draw attention to secondary movements, the movement from an EU member state once they arrive on EU soil. A factor that calls into question Italy, a country of first arrival and repeatedly criticized in recent years for controls and registrations considered insufficient. Meloni puts the problem of landings back on the table, underlining that continuing to unload everything on the landing countries is not sustainable. “Migration cannot continue to be managed in the absence of a structural solution in Europe,” said the premier, effectively asking for a European response.
Hence the request for an extraordinary summit. Moreover, the migration issue opened the work of the European Council summit with the long-distance confrontation between the leaders of Austria and Romania. The Austrian chancellor, Karl Nehammer, complains in Bucharest about the absence of checks on asylum seekers. “We have more than 65,000 unregistered migrants, and we know that 20,000 of them come from Romania. We know this after investigations by the Austrian police ». This is why Vienna persists in maintaining its veto on Romania’s entry into the Schengen area for free movement. Another element that confirms the divisions on everything related to migrants, and which Meloni’s Italy needs to ask for a summit.
«We begin to talk about the topic», says a satisfied Raffaele Fitto on the sidelines of the meeting. The Minister for European Affairs sees that the Italian line is bearing fruit. The dossier moves again, waiting for results still to be found.