Today, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani, received Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary at Farnesina.
The Deputy Prime Minister stressed the Italian Government’s attention to the Ilaria Salis case and expressed satisfaction with the decision to anticipate the hearing to March 28 (after it was first scheduled in May). Tajani also provided his foreign peer with a new, detailed memo of Salis’ detention conditions and stressed the need to carry out a fair trial and ensure that Mrs Salis’ fundamental rights and dignity are protected, also through the support of the Italian Embassy in Budapest.
It has been a while since Minister Tajani and the Italian Government discussed Mrs Salis’s detention conditions, as is done for other cases of Italian citizens detained in foreign detention facilities. Although not to interfere, Italy has the clear intention to exercise pressure to verify whether the detention conditions are in line with European regulations of the protection of human rights. The Italian Government will continue to work on this as in other similar cases.
During the meeting, Minister Szijjártó presented the priorities of the next Hungarian EU Council Presidency. The two Ministers also discussed the leading international and EU dossiers, explicitly focusing on the Western Balkans. As regards Bosnia and Herzegovina – a country of primary interest for both Italy and Hungary and leader of the EUFOR Althea operation (of which Italy is Deputy Commander), Tajani underlined the Government’s commitment to supporting a European path for Sarajevo and reminded the Minister about his official visit to that country planned for next week.
