Two months after the Lampedusa tragedy, the European Border Surveillance System is operational. The amount of additional funding is contained despite the appeals of European political leaders for solidarity with Italy, the first landing place for migrants. In any case, 30 million was allocated to our country, more than the contribution to the whole of the other EU states.
Two months have passed since the sinking of a boat full of migrants off the coast of Lampedusa costing the lives of 366 desperate people in search of a better life, and Europe has struck a blow. Not fast, of course; but not too late considering the time necessary for the representatives of 28 sovereign states. which, however, do not yet form a federation, could agree on a decision. But feeble yes, it cannot be denied; given that it consists of a regulation (ie a European law valid in all EU member states) which outlines an integrated surveillance and identification system for vessels en route from the southern shore of the Mediterranean towards the ports of hope. In addition to the boats of drug couriers and traffickers of all kinds.
This feeble and not very rapid response from Europe to the unanimous request for interventions to avoid the recurrence of tragedies such as that of Lampedusa was the establishment of Eurosur, the European Border Surveillance System, first operational in the southern Mediterranean from Monday 2 December. A prevention tool born precisely under the pressure of the emotional wave aroused by the Lampedusa tragedy, with the aim of keeping under control above all the southern and then also the eastern borders of the European Union to try to reduce the extent of the flow of migrants towards the mirage, Europe, fed by hunger and favored by the greed of merchants of men.
In this first phase, 18 EU Member States participate in Eurosur, most of which adhere to the Schengen Convention which abolished borders in Europe (in addition to Italy, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Hungary) plus Norway, also adherent to Schengen. Secondly, from XNUMX December next year, seven of the other ten countries that make up the European Union will be involved. Great Britain and Ireland, which have never entered the Schengen area, and Denmark have instead decided not to join the initiative. Worrying, though not the first, sign of a European solidarity that creaks under the weight of old and never erased mistrust as well as the economic-financial crisis which certainly doesn't help.
Italy has appealed to solidarity, and not since yesterday. Which has never spared its efforts to rescue, welcome and assist migrants even if it has sometimes risked not being able to withstand the pressure of the recurring and uncontrollable waves of landings. But who has always tried to pass a message of simple evidence: immigration from the South of the world is a phenomenon of epochal importance that cannot be erased with the stroke of a pen but which must be managed. And not only from the first landing country, which in recent times has been mainly ours, but from the European institutions with the participation of the other member states.
This is a position that in the hours following the tragedy of two months ago found a prompt echo in the words of the European leaders. The management of the wave of migration "is a European problem, and I ask all member countries to take responsibility for the plight of refugees", said the president of the European Parliament Martin Schulz. He added that "the EU cannot leave Italy alone". While the President of the Commission José Manuel Barroso argued, in a phone call with Deputy Prime Minister Angelino Alfano, that "tragedies like these concern the whole Union". And he reiterated the commitment of the Brussels Executive "to make efforts to strengthen the agency that deals with coast patrolling".
This agency is Frontex, recently at the center of a tug-of-war between the European Parliament and the Council over the amount of financial resources to be allocated to border control activities. Which, as far as Italy is concerned, include two operations. One, called "Hermes", covers the area of the Strait of Sicily with the Pelagic Islands to counter the flows of illegal immigration from North Africa. The other, called "Aeneas", operates in the Ionian Sea in front of the coasts of Calabria and Puglia.
Frontex is now joined by Eurosur. "An authentically European solution that will make it possible to save the lives of migrants traveling on overcrowded and unsafe boats, to avoid further tragedies and to stop the boats of drug traffickers", underlined the Commissioner for Internal Affairs Cecilia Malmström. She that she invited the Member States to "fully seize the unique opportunity to show that the EU is founded on solidarity and concrete collaboration".
Solidarity and collaboration which, considering only the breadth of the geographical area to be monitored in the Mediterranean (from Cyprus to Spain) would require much more substantial financial support than the 244 million foreseen for the seven-year period which is about to begin. A support that could have been more robust in line with the solidarity commitment requested by European leaders as well as by Italy (Napolitano in the lead), but which was probably also held back by a difficult financial context. A context which, it must be recognised, did not however prevent the allocation of 30 million for our country as an additional contribution for the maritime border surveillance operations carried out as part of the tasks entrusted to Frontex. An amount which, compared to the 20 million attributed to all the other countries involved, represents to some extent an acknowledgment of the greater weight supported by Italy. Which continues to be the main destination of the long wave of irregular immigration, which has caused more than six thousand victims in the last twenty years.
