\u201cAll of this reluctance to accept the European Commission\u2019s immigration plan seems short-sighted to me\u201d. Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni has always taken a cautious approach and avoided any show of triumphalism even when \u2013 in mid-May \u2013 Italy could have claimed the transformation of the immigration dossier into a shared, European dossier, as a national success. The underlying numbers\u00ad \u2013 24.000 \u201cplacements\u201d in Europe over 2 years compared with 57,000 new entrants to Italy in 2015 alone \u2013 suggest that a sense of realism is in order. The Commission\u2019s plan certainly won\u2019t resolve all the troubles with a wave of a \u201cmagic wand\u201d. But Gentiloni warns that \u201ca delay would more than anything else be a sign of the European Union\u2019s impotence\u201d.<\/p>\n
Minister, things started off in grand style with more or less binding agreements and understandings on accommodating the refugees; on funding; on photo-registration; and on redistribution. Then, what with hair-splitting and increasingly pronounced differences of interpretation, the plan was watered down. How will it end up?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI think the negotiations are still open; the member states are talking to each other; the balance of power has not worsened with respect to the outset; those opposing the Commission\u2019s proposal, which we have always supported, are the same as ever. I only hope that the EU executive doesn\u2019t backtrack on its own plan\u201d.<\/p>\n What\u2019s your feeling on that?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIn my meetings over the last 10 days or so with the EU leaders, with the commissioner for migration, Avramopoulos, with Vice-President Timmermans and with Federica Mogherini, I\u2019ve received confirmation that they\u2019ll stick to the plan: the proposal to redistribute some of the asylum seekers among the various countries\u201d.<\/p>\n You\u2019ve complained that more money is needed for the countries most directly involved. <\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cMore resources are needed for countries that, like Italy or Greece, are in the front line in receiving immigrants. A commitment of 60 million euro is not enough, it\u2019s too little for the world\u2019s leading economic super-power\u201d.<\/p>\n The EU Summit\u2019s draft includes repatriation of migrants coming to Europe for economic reasons, although the proposals are worded more formally. Is that a solution? <\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no one measure that can resolve the question. Not even repatriation\u201d.<\/p>\n Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cFirst, the expulsion procedures are individual, and second, we need stable governments as our counterparties\u201d.<\/p>\n A mechanism that looks rather complex\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cYou know something? I hear some fanciful solutions on the subject of migrants. Let\u2019s build camps in Libya, let\u2019s send them back to sea, let\u2019s put them all on an island. People who are fanning the flames and painting the situation as though hordes of terrorists had invaded us, bringing epidemics with them. Stirring things up that way doesn\u2019t help and is unseemly for people in positions of institutional responsibility. People fleeing from wars and dictatorships need to be treated according to the fundamental principles of humanity. Which obviously doesn\u2019t mean transforming our city squares into reception centres\u201d.<\/p>\n Minister, let\u2019s look at these measures to tackle migration at the root.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re working with the UN agencies to keep the migrants in the transit countries; we need to establish agreements with the governments of those countries to prevent the migrants from leaving. On this point, we have new and existing agreements with Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey and Gambia, and we need to tackle the thorny question of the conflicts in countries like Libya, Syria and Eritrea. But we need to be honest: we\u2019ll be dealing with immigration for years. The true, and only, solution is a global, comprehensive one. So the Commission\u2019s proposal is not a magic want; it is, however, an initial response\u201d.<\/p>\n Is there not a risk that compulsory transfers will cause the whole enterprise to founder?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cTake the situation in north-eastern Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n But there are no immigrants landing there\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cNo, but the flows change. At present Greece is more involved than Italy, for example. And who can say that the current crisis in Ukraine, for example \u2013 and I obviously hope this won\u2019t be this case \u2013, won\u2019t lead to another emergency in the future? So what will the countries that at present oppose compulsory quotas do then? Will they ask for a sharing of the burden? Being, and remaining, opposed to the EU Commission\u2019s draft shows a lack of foresight\u201d.<\/p>\n In the meantime, the French police have blocked immigrants from entering a the Ventimiglia border. But what about the Schengen Treaty?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe rules apply for everyone, including the Schengen rules. This passing of the buck has got to stop\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAll of this reluctance to accept the European Commission\u2019s immigration plan seems short-sighted to me\u201d. Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni has always taken a cautious approach and avoided any show of triumphalism even when \u2013 in mid-May \u2013 Italy could have claimed the transformation of the immigration dossier into a shared, European dossier, as a national […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[31,43,6,76,42],"class_list":["post-23578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviste","tag-africa","tag-diritti-umani","tag-mediterraneo-e-medio-oriente","tag-ministri-precedenti","tag-unione-europea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23578\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}