The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, yesterday welcomed the invitation of the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and delayed her trip to New York on the occasion of the United Nations General Assembly to stop for a few hours in Lampedusa and stage that Brussels will not leave Italy alone in the face of the migration challenge and will support it in the crisis that this small island, located just 150 kilometers from Tunisia, is experiencing after the arrival of some 10,000 immigrants in three days.
Von der Leyen did not arrive in Lampedusa empty-handed, but presented a ten-point European action plan to contain irregular immigration. “It is important for me to be here, because illegal immigration is a European challenge and requires a European response,” said the community leader. “I want to be very clear: we will be the ones who decide who arrives in Europe and under what circumstances and not the traffickers,” Von der Leyen added, in a very harsh tone, during an appearance before the press at the island's small airport.
Von der Leyen's plan, however, does not present major novelties with respect to the current European provisions to combat this phenomenon. Among the ten commitments announced is the support of the European border protection agency, Frontex, to identify migrants arriving in Italy and repatriate those who do not meet the conditions to request asylum, something that already happens but is difficult to carry out due to the few bilateral repatriation agreements that exist with the countries of origin. He also promised to encourage legal avenues and humanitarian corridors – which has been talked about for years; ask other member states to use the voluntary solidarity mechanism to transfer migrants out of Italy – a system that is already in place and which Germany, for example, has suspended this week – or destroy barges used by traffickers, a measure that has been applied for a long time.
Von der Leyen also promised to update European legislation against human trafficking, a demand from Meloni, and once again evoked the need to cooperate with countries of origin and transit. However, the biggest change was apparent support for Meloni's latest proposal to fight this phenomenon. The Italian far-right leader, who during the 2022 electoral campaign that brought her to power promised a “naval blockade” to stop barge departures from Tunisia and Libya, now demands a European naval mission. Under the idea of the leader of the Brothers of Italy, the spirit of Operation Sofia should be recovered, which began in 2015 with the objective of identifying traffickers and combating them, but which ended four years later. The then Italian Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini, was convinced that these ships carried out a “call effect” for migrants, a theory repeated yesterday by Meloni.
Rome's will is the presence of European ships – in coordination with the North African states – that serve to deter human traffickers. “I support the possibility of exploring the options of expanding European naval missions in the Mediterranean or working on new missions,” Von der Leyen said, without specifying too much.
The president of the European Commission and Meloni did not see first-hand the dramatic conditions to which the migrants were exposed in the reception center. It was cleaned and tidied up before the visit despite the fact that, according to the Red Cross, there are still 1,500 migrants there, although it has a capacity for 400. On the other hand, they did face the anger of the inhabitants of Lampedusa, who blamed them for their inaction. governmental. “We are working on it... We are doing the best we can,” responded Meloni, who these days has been shaken by criticism, even from members of her conservative coalition, after so far this year they have landed in Italy more than 127,000 migrants, almost double the number during the same period the previous year.
The reason lies in the economic, political and social instability that Tunisia is experiencing, which already surpasses Libya as a country of departure. Meloni demanded before Von der Leyen that the implementation of the controversial agreement reached with President Kais Saied in July be accelerated – even disapproved by the European Ombudsman due to the authoritarian drift of the president – by which Brussels committed to sending funds to the North African country. in exchange for collaborating to stop migration. The Italian premier even suggested that Europe pay part of the Tunisian budgets. Von der Leyen yesterday indicated that they would accelerate the delivery of equipment and training of the Tunisian coast guard – something that was already part of that July agreement – and the transfer of funds.
“The future of Europe is at stake here,” warned the Italian, who has asked that the migration issue be on the agenda of the next meetings of the European Council. The president, Charles Michel, has already shown his agreement.
