“The Commission takes note of the declaration of a state of emergency in Italy, which is a national competition promoted in the particular and challenging situation that the country is experiencing. We need to see the details before assessing it.” With this brief statement, Brussels comes out of the controversial measure adopted by the Government led by Giorgia Meloni after the arrival of more than 3,000 people on the transalpine coasts in the last three days.
Annita Hipper, the spokesperson for the European Commission on migration issues, has confirmed at the daily press conference that Rome has already requested additional financial assistance from Brussels to address the current migration crisis. At the moment, the Italian Executive has mobilized five million euros for the identification of the people who arrive and to speed up their subsequent return and extradition.
The Community Executive stands in profile before the new scenario that is opening up in the southern country. The leader of the Brothers of Italy goes one step further in her agenda to counteract and stop the arrival of illegal immigration. A few months ago, she launched a code of conduct that penalizes NGOs that help refugees and migrants stranded at sea with fines and the stoppage of their ships. Meloni’s first run-in with her European partners was, in fact, on account of migration. Her refusal to open her ports to the 230 people who were waiting on the Ocean Viking in her territorial waters sparked a diplomatic clash with Emmanuel Macron’s France, which agreed to welcome them.
Italy, unlike other countries such as Spain, is experiencing a notable upturn in arrivals of migrants and refugees. So far this year, 31,292 people have arrived in the country through the Central Mediterranean route. During the same period in 2022, the numbers were 7,928. The reading that the ultranationalist government makes is that the war in Ukraine is generating a “geopolitical shock” not only on the eastern borders, but also on the southern ones with the destabilization of the Sahel, where the group of Russian mercenaries Wagner and with the blockade of grain and wheat in Ukraine.
But Meloni also blames Brussels and its European partners for not carrying out any measures on migration and asylum. Since 2015, when the so-called refugee crisis was generated, the EU lacks a migration policy. Since then, putting the Migration and Asylum Pact into operation has been one of the great pending matters. But the lack of consensus among the Member States and their insurmountable differences have postponed this decision sine die.
The migration issue generates one of the most emotional, sensitive and divisive debates among European capitals. And the solution to date has been to weather the storm with ad hoc solutions. Volunteers. Inefficient. One of them is the voluntary Relocation Mechanism that launched in June of last year. But in the ten months since then, the 19 participating Member States have resettled 884 refugees. An average of four people each month. 512 of them have ended up from the Italian reception centers to other European countries.
Closing the asylum pact will be one of the priorities of the Spanish Presidency of the Council, which starts on July 1. It is one of the most important open dossiers. And the calendar is tight: in May 2024 European elections will be held, which will change the political structure and distribution of the European institutions. In addition, the migration issue has gone from being one of the star issues on the community agenda to one forgotten and eclipsed by the successive crises that do not give a truce to the European project: before, the coronavirus health crisis; now, the war in Ukraine and its economic, geopolitical and energy consequences.
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