Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Antonio Tajani and Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi today will travel to Menton and Ventimiglia to meet with France’s new Prime Minister Michel Barnier and Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau.
The focus of the talks will be cooperation between Italy and France in the field of migration, and will include a meeting with the security forces in charge of monitoring the Italian-French border and a visit to the Police and Customs Cooperation Centre (PCCC).
“In an increasingly complex international context, Italy and France must work together to address current and future challenges, starting with the issue of migration,” said Minister Tajani, pointing out that “the Italian Government is ready to work, at all levels, with the new French Government.”
“We need to strengthen the consultation mechanism between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Interior on asylum and migration”, said Deputy Prime Minister Tajani, highlighting the importance of strengthening cooperation and coordination also at European level. “The priority now is to ensure the proper implementation of the new Pact on Migration and Asylum respecting the balance between solidarity and sharing of responsibilities between European partners, while identifying innovative and concrete solutions to the problem of migration in coherence and complementarity with the progress made with the Pact, starting from the results achieved with the EU-Tunisia MoU and now from the implementation of the Italy-Albania protocol,” continued Tajani.
The meeting will also focus on the issues of border cooperation and cross-border connections. In this regard, Tajani recalled the need to strengthen the Mont Blanc Tunnel, “one of the symbols of the friendship between our two countries”, and reiterated the importance of ensuring the proper functioning of the other transalpine links, “starting with the opening of the new Frejus road tunnel, the return to normal traffic flows on the Moncenisio railway line, as well as the opening of the new Tenda tunnel.”
At the end of the joint meeting, Minister Tajani and Minister Piantedosi will attend an operational meeting with the Prefects of the areas of Liguria affected by the bad weather and will hold a press conference in Ventimiglia, at the Annunziata Fort.