Italy Blocks Conclusions at EU Summit Due to Migration

Italy wants other EU member states to show more solidarity regarding migration, and its Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte threatened to veto the adoption of the summit conclusions upon his arrival at the summit, and he is currently following through on that threat.

“Italy has worked hard on the proposal it sent to the Council. It is a reasonable proposal in line with EU values. I have spoken with other member states, and they have offered support. Now we are waiting for words to turn into actions,” Conte said before the summit began.

When asked what would happen if the Italian proposal is not accepted, Conte said he “does not want to consider such a possibility,” adding that in that case, there would be no conclusions.

The discussion on migration is taking place during a working dinner, and prior to that, a range of topics was discussed for which conclusions were supposed to be immediately adopted.

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However, no conclusions have been reached so far. “Since a member state has expressed reservations about all conclusions, no conclusions have been reached at this time,” said a spokesperson for the President of the European Council Donald Tusk, without specifying which country it was. According to diplomatic sources, it is Italy.

As a result, Tusk canceled the press conference that was scheduled before the start of the working dinner.

The President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker commented on the Italian Prime Minister’s threat.

“I am not worried about the veto but about the situation on the Italian coast,” Juncker said.

Leaders of member states gathered in Brussels on Thursday for one of the most complicated summits in recent times due to new tensions over migration, trade disputes with the United States, the need for further reforms of the eurozone, and therefore the possibility that the first day of the summit could extend into the early hours of Friday.

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Migration is back in the spotlight, although this does not reflect the situation on the ground at all. The number of illegal entries into the European Union has fallen by 95 percent compared to the peak of the crisis in October 2015, thanks to a series of measures taken to stop and slow the influx of migrants.

EU leaders are discussing a proposal to establish regional disembarkation centers outside EU territory, where migrants rescued at sea would be accepted and where economic migrants would be separated from those in need of international protection.

These centers would be established in cooperation with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration.

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The establishment of such platforms would serve as a deterrent for people to embark on dangerous journeys since they would not end up on EU territory anyway, which would help dismantle the business model of human traffickers.

It was previously anticipated that this summit would finally agree on a new system of common asylum policy, which has been discussed for two years, but this has been abandoned due to a lack of even approximate consensus among member states.

In contrast, there is agreement on the need to strengthen external borders and provide more assistance to the countries from which migrants come and transit countries.

“I propose that we focus on the external borders of the EU, including the project of disembarkation platforms,” Tusk said ahead of the summit. “The alternative to this solution would be a chaotic closing of borders, also within the EU, as well as a growing conflict among EU member states,” Tusk emphasized.

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“The first priority at this moment is to protect our external borders. We must start doing that first, and then we can continue discussing what is happening within the European Union,” said Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini.

His Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki said that the talks are going in the direction Poland has advocated, “namely more action around the external borders of the EU.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel assessed that the issue of protecting external borders is “something that unites Europe.”

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As there is no prospect of reaching a comprehensive solution on migration, Merkel wants to achieve bilateral agreements with countries that are willing to allow the return of refugees to the countries where they are registered.

Germany is in contact with several EU countries with which it would like to conclude such agreements for the return of those migrants who cannot obtain asylum in Germany and who were previously registered in one of the other EU countries.

Angela Merkel is under pressure from her coalition partners from the CSU to negotiate such arrangements or otherwise decide to unilaterally refuse such migrants at the border to curb “secondary migration” within the EU.

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A spokesperson for the Hungarian government said that Budapest is ready to discuss migration issues with Germany.