Italian President Sergio Mattarella and the Pope have stepped in to calm waters among member states as agreements on migration remain elusive in Brussels.
After the ship Ocean Viking operated by the NGO Sos Mediterranée, docked at the port of Toulon in France, where it disembarked 234 migrants, a diplomatic crisis broke out between Rome and Paris, leading to the closure of the French borders and a threat from the Interior Minister Gérald Darminin of “extremely serious consequences.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who will meet with several heads of state at the G20 summit in Bali on Tuesday, let Mattarella take the helm on the issue of migrants. Mattarella’s diplomacy seems to have calmed the waters, the joint communiqué released by the two presidencies and placed on the home page of the Quirinale and Elysée websites suggests.
The two presidents, the note reads, spoke by telephone and, during the conversation, agreed on the great importance of the relationship between Italy and France, sharing the need for conditions of full cooperation in every sector, both bilaterally and within the EU.
A few days earlier, on a state visit to Maastricht, Mattarella had called to work “in order to ensure that the principles of coordination and shared responsibility between Member States guide the common response to a phenomenon that is decisive for our own growth prospects.”
In this complex diplomatic framework, the Pope intervened to defend the main victims of irregular immigration: migrants.
“Forced migration, to escape wars, hunger, persecution or climate change, is one of the great evils of this age, which we will only be able to tackle at its root by ensuring real development in every country,” the Pope said.
Conciliatory tones in Brussels
Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani, from Forza Italia, took part in the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, where, representing Italy, he raised the issue of migrants and the urgency of adopting common European rules.
“The tones today were not fractured. It seems to me there was the will of everyone to seek and find a European solution” on migrants, Tajani said.
Regarding the diplomatic case with France, the minister reported “positive tones” with his French counterpart and clarified that Italy does not want to open polemics against France and Germany.
Should another ship arrive in Italy, Tajani said that what to do will be assessed on a “case by case” basis. “Let’s start by keeping the rules that are there, waiting for better rules,” he said with regard to the agreements on relocations.
(Federica Pascale | EURACTIV.it)
Source: euractiv.com
