Today in Brussels Antonio Tajani Italy’s long emergency cahier de doléances will appear on the European table migrants. The foreign minister, who succeeded in getting the dossier through at the EU summit, will present his European colleagues “with a political problem”: “We need real and effective EU coordination of migration flows. Italy must not be left alone». In addition, Tajani will push for the adoption of “hard rules” for ships ong and a “Marshall Plan forAfrica more than 100 billion” to trace “at the origin” the reasons for the exodus that is driving hundreds of kilometers of people to leave the African continent.
In his speech, the foreign minister will try to avoid the collision with Paris. “I’m not going to raise spirits,” he predicted to the messenger, “I’m going to Brussels to make it clear that more Europe is needed. The problem isn’t Paris, it’s not Berlin. It is the lack of rules and concrete solidarity in the redistribution of migrants”. Redistribution that “didn’t work and isn’t working. So much so that out of 90,000 people disembarking in Italy, only 117 out of 8,000 were relocated ».
Concrete answers are not expected from the summit, these will (perhaps) reach the Council of Interior Ministers at the end of November. However, Tajani will begin teaching the practice of the rules for NGO ships. Firstly, the ship must head for the flag state. Secondly, if this is not possible (many ships are German or from Nordic countries), the flag states of the NGO boats have to “take over” the people rescued at sea. As? “With an airlift to bring the shipwrecked home,” says a government source, “or by agreeing with the country of first landing a commitment to immediately redistribute those rescued.” In this case, Italy could authorize landings in its ports with these guarantees. Certainly, “the state will have to exercise jurisdiction and control over ships that fly its own flag”. Because, as Tajani will say today in Brussels: “NGOs cannot run sea taxis that have arranged to meet human traffickers in the Mediterranean. And they must not be used by other European states to allow their merchant ships to maintain the trade route without rescuing migrants.”
The foreign minister will also try to reaffirm the principle that “Italy is not the only safe haven, it is not the only place where shipwrecked people disembark”, “there are also French, Maltese, Tunisian ports…” . And based on this scheme, he will ask Brussels to “adopt a common migration policy”.
“More Europe” also applies to Africa. “The Turkish model must be repeated,” says Tajani. And Turkey has given Europe tens of billions of euros to stop the Balkan route that has brought Germany to its knees. Well, the Secretary of State will demand a “Marshall Plan for Africa worth over 100 billion.” To promote the development of countries, face the climatic changes that provoke famines and floods ». “In 2050,” explains Tajani, “there will be more than three billion people living in Africa. If we don’t address the problem now, millions of people will move north, fleeing war, hunger and poverty.”
FIELDS IN AFRICA
The funds would also be used in the short term to set up refugee camps in the north of the continent, particularly in Tunisia and Libya (with the presence of humanitarian organizations and European armed forces), to identify migrants and collect asylum applications. Then those entitled to refugees are to be “redistributed” to the various European countries. With two consequences: the Mediterranean countries of the EU would no longer be landing areas and the massacre of migrants who had drowned at sea would end.
But the first problem to solve is that of NGOs. And with Germany and France defending them, passing the squeeze demanded by the Italian government is difficult. Thus, the Salvini decrees, which provided for maximum penalties and the confiscation of ships, could be exhumed from Rome. Or, in order not to exacerbate the conflict, it is being considered to adopt the “code of conduct” that the then Interior Minister Marco Minniti signed in 2017 together with some NGOs. This code provided for various “obligations”: “Not to enter Libyan territorial waters”, not to deactivate the tracking devices (to allow the Italian authorities to check the ships’ route), “not to make communications or send light signals to disembark and embark of boats carrying migrants ». And the promise to take Italian police officers on board at the request of the Italian authorities.
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED