On migrants, the Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, works on two fronts: general and particular. On the general one, Italy will officially request the overcoming of the Treaty of Dublin, presenting its own proposal to the European Council on 28 and 29 June in Brussels. With regards to the particular, in order to try to resolve the Lifeline case, which has obtained permission to enter Maltese waters, the premier would have pushed for a secret meeting with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in order to find a shared agreement.
MIGRANTS: “OVERCOMING THE TREATY OF DUBLIN
During his speech to the Chamber of Deputies, Conte was clear: “Concrete decisions must be taken in this European Council. Without hesitation, ambiguity and fear. With the strength of a government that in Europe speaks with a single, firm and resolute voice”. For this reason, in Brussels, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, the Executive is united on a fundamental point: we need to go beyond the Dublin treaty. “It must be overcome because there is no longer any doubt that it is inadequate to manage migratory flows. Only 7% of arriving migrants are refugees”.
“Italy, with its contribution especially in terms of immigration, can contribute to making this appointment (the European Council, ed.) a watershed – added the Prime Minister – a turning point and a change for Europe, so as to contribute to designing the Europe we want and intend to achieve in the near future”.
MIGRANTS: THE ITALIAN PROPOSAL
“The problem – explained the premier – are the so-called primary movements. We have to get out of the emergency logic to move on to structural responses". The primary movements are nothing more than the landings on our coasts, but Conte's sentence also seems to be an indirect response to Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Germany, which instead consider a solution to secondary movements essential, i.e. the migrants who arrive in countries of first arrival (Italy, Greece and Spain above all) but then illegally reach the other countries of the Union.
According to what was stated by Conte in Montecitorio, the Italian Executive has “identified ten goals. The first is to intensify relations with the countries of origin, to prevent outflows. I am thinking in particular of Libya and Niger”. It is therefore probable that the proposal foresees the construction of hot spots in North Africa, in the countries of departure, from which to manage asylum requests and relocations.
“Then we need to strengthen the external borders of the European Union – continued the tenant of Palazzo Chigi – intensify the agreements to patrol the coasts. The first arrival criterion must be passed. Whoever lands in Italy lands in Europe. I will say it out loud to all interlocutors. The Italian coasts are European coasts. This criterion must be overcome".
Su landings and rescues: “The obligation to rescue cannot become an obligation to take charge of managing applications on behalf of everyone. The EU must tackle human trafficking with joint initiatives, it cannot leave countries alone. Furthermore, we cannot bring all migrants only to Italy and Spain, but to all other countries".
In the proposal there will also be space for sanctions against Russia. Conte underlines there must be nothing automatic in the renewal of the Union's sanctions against Moscow. "We need a lot of caution, sanctions are a means not an end". "We will therefore continue - he concluded - to pay great attention and support to Russian civil society and to our small and medium-sized enterprises". “The EU remains closely linked to NATO, as does our country”.
Another point of the Plan will concern resources; "On the poverty front, after the data published yesterday by Istat, we need to give concrete answers, because in Italy there are 5 million people who can no longer wait". "Italy is a net contributor to the EU budget, we think we deserve more attention,” he continued.
On a practical level, the Premier explains: "I will propose that the negotiations reserve more substantial financial attention to the European funds destined for social inclusion and the European social fund which could finance the employment reform, the 2021-2027 budget is a tool key to achieving this goal. Words that seem to prelude the intention of ask for flexibility again and, take advantage of it, to find the money for the basic income
On cups:”The current EU structure does not guarantee fair taxation, especially for web industries, we will tax the profits generated in the member states by redistributing them in the communities that contributed to generating them”, said the prime minister speaking to the Chamber.
Last objective: “Each state establishes the quantity of migrants it is able to welcome. We must adopt countermeasures against states that do not want to welcome”.
MIGRANTS: THE SECRET MACRON-CONTE MEETING
A landfall country, seven welcoming countries. This is the decision made during the secret meeting between the Italian Premier, Giuseppe Conte, and the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, held on Monday in Rome, at the Casina Valadier during which the Lifeline affair was discussed but also of the strategy to be adopted in view of the now imminent EU Council. The meeting was seen by political commentators as an attempt by the premier to sideline the cumbersome interior minister Matteo Salvini, an intention evidently shared by French president Macron.
An interview that lasted 90 minutes during which the two political leaders allegedly found a shared solution for the docking in Malta of the German NGO's ship, which had been at sea for days with 234 people on board. After a long push and pull of the agreement, the announcement of the NGO arrives via Twitter: the Lifeline "received" permission to enter Maltese waters, and seek shelter from bad weather conditions. Shortly thereafter Malta announces the green light for the ship to dock in the afternoon.
The @MV_LIFELINE darf jetzt in Maltesische Gewässer, um Windschutz zu suchen. Position given by RCC Malta: 35d50.1mN 014d35.1mO
— MISSION LIFELINE (@SEENOTRETTUNG) June 27, 2018
Reconstructing what happened in the last 48 hours is not easy, not only because of the constant reversals in the face but also because of the ambiguity of the Governments.
The surprise decision on the German NGO's boat came, against any precedent, during an unofficial bilateral meeting kept hidden not only from the press, but also from the members of the Italian executive themselves. Including - it seems - the interior minister, Matteo Salvini, who while Conte and Macron were engaged in yet another compromise attempt, launched barbs via social networks at the president, and then attacked him directly in words: "Open the doors of your house immediately to the 9.000 that France had pledged to welcome”.
Going back to what was decided during the interview, Lifeline's landing in Malta would have been delayed since Germany's rejection to welcome some of the migrants on board. After the Yes of Italy, Malta, France and Portugal and Spain, the interior minister of the CSU, Horst Seehofer, had underlined that "the Merkel government will not jump for the migrants".
