The wait is over. At 15 on June 28 it began the Council among the 28 heads of state and government of the European Union. A summit that promises to be hard, difficult, all uphill. And that on Thursday evening it came close to bankruptcy
The hottest dossier, the one on migrants, began to be tackled in the evening, during and after the dinner between the leaders. And it is precisely on this issue that Italy intends to play all out. Late in the evening, the first twist: Italy will not sign the conclusions of the first part of the European summit, but asks for a vote on the entire document - divided into several parts - therefore including the part on migrants under discussion in the second part of the EU summit. "Either the whole package presented by Italy is discussed, or the negotiation is not opened", is the position of the Italian delegation. Therefore, if Prime Minister Conte exercises his veto, he will block everything.
Juncker and Tusk's press conference, scheduled for the end of the first part of the European Council, was thus canceled because "a Member State has put the reservation on the entire draft conclusions", therefore "there was no agreement on the conclusions", said the spokesman for the President of the European Council Donald Tusk specifying that the meeting with the press will be held on Friday at the end of the second day of the summit. But let's see how the day unfolded.
MERKEL - COUNT MEETING
The Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, continues to follow the path of bilateral meetings. After Monday's secret meeting in Rome with the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, the Italian Premier is engaged in a mini-summit with Angela Merkel. At this juncture, the German chancellor has a difficult task: on the one hand, she will try to find a shared solution at the European level, trying to push the issue dear to Germany of secondary movements and at the same time to contain Italian "intemperances", on the other, she will have to find the way to defuse the tensions within his Government. Precisely on the migratory flows arriving in Berlin from countries of first entry - such as Italy - the "hawkish" minister Horst Seehofer threatens to blow up the German Grand Coalition.
EU COUNCIL: COUNT'S WORDS
"It's a possibility that I don't want to consider, but if we were to get to this, we certainly won't come to shared conclusions for my part". This is what Premier Conte said in answering a question about the possibility that Italy might ask the veto on the migrant dossier in the EU Council.
"If this time we should not find willingness from the other European countries - continued the Prime Minister - we could close this Council without approving shared conclusions" on migrants.
Italy therefore presents itself in Brussels with the will to refuse "any compromise to the bottom". “Today we will understand if Europe really wants to manage the migratory phenomenon in solidarity”.
As anticipated by the Premier in the Chamber, Italy arrives at this summit with a plan divided by points. At the heart of it all is the reform of the Dublin Treaty. “Today we will see for ourselves whether European solidarity exists or not. If you want to go from words to deeds. This European Council today could be a watershed between a before and an after in the approach to the migratory phenomenon. We arrive at this European Council with reasonable proposals and in line with the European spirit and principles”, Conte declared again.
THE OTHER LEADERS
Even the French president is betting everything on a shared solution Emmanuel Macron, according to which, on the issue of migrants “the alternative is simple: do we want national solutions or European cooperation solutions? I defend European solutions”.
More cautious though Merkel"We cannot leave the countries where the majority of arrivals occur alone. This is the core of the Dublin III regulation. Until there is a 28-strong consensus on all of this, we will move forward with a coalition of the willing".
However, the German chancellor does not back down an inch on secondary movements and after having received the willingness to collaborate from Spain and France, she will try to broaden the agreement as much as possible. Greece also entered the match. The Greek Premier, Alexis Tsipras in fact, he told the Financial Times that he was available and Italy too could decide to stay there, on condition that it has concrete answers in return in relation to responsibility for the landings.
Updated 20:51pm Thursday June 28th
