In relation to the case of the “Diciotti” patrol vessel, which is currently anchored offshore the island of Lampedusa with 177 persons rescued from a boat in distress that had launched an SOS, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has officially invested the European Commission with the task of finding a solution in line with the principle of shared responsibility among EU Member States over migration flows that was agreed at the European Council of June 2018.
Consistently with the aforesaid European Council conclusions, the Italian Government deems it necessary that the European Commission directly assume the initiative to single out the EU Member Countries willing to receive the people rescued at sea and perform the required vetting procedures.
Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi recalled: “It is an action decided by EU Institutions that Italy naturally fully supports and that can make it possible to overcome the difficulties in an orderly and systemic way, turning burden sharing, a measure already applied several times during the past two months, into a structural approach based on ad hoc agreements between the States.”