Germany did the right thing by funding private rescue operations for migrants in the Mediterranean. Ricarda Lang, leader of the ruling Greens, insisted on Monday, rejecting complaints from the opposition and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Last week, Italian media reported that Meloni had written a letter to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, accusing Germany of encouraging migration through state funding of NGOs. Meloni’s comments even received backing from Johann Wadephul, a senior centre-right opposition CDU/CSU MP, who this weekend called her “anger” “justified” and claimed that “German taxpayers’ money should not be spent to fund the business of inhumane people smugglers”.
“What’s happening here is that human lives are being saved, and that’s the right thing to do. (…) And it’s the right thing to support those who do it,” Lang told reporters on Monday, calling Wadepul’s claims “nonsense”.
The German government is to provide up to €800,000 in funding to two NGOs, one of which carries out sea rescues in the Mediterranean while the other assists newly arrived migrants in Italy.
Italy had been informed of the initiative at the time of its adoption, and the disbursement of money should not have come as a surprise, a spokesperson of the German Foreign Ministry maintained last week.
The spat comes amid rising tensions over migration between the Italian government, led by Meloni’s far-right Fratelli d’Italia party, and Germany’s left-wing government in Berlin, following a surge in arrivals in recent weeks.
Funding sea rescue missions is reportedly the final sticking point in ongoing negotiations between EU governments over a key reform of the bloc’s asylum policy.
Germany had given up its opposition to a controversial “crisis regulation” that was part of the deal due to an intervention by the chancellor who had overruled the pro-migration Greens. However, Rome still wants to review the compromise, as Meloni’s government worries that the compromise concedes too much ground to Berlin.
(Nick Alipour | Euractiv.de)
Read more with EURACTIV
France prepares for HPV vaccination campaign in schools
Source: euractiv.com
