Italy gives the ok on migrants, but the responsibility remains with the countries of first entry

Brussels. Italy yesterday agreed to vote in favor of an ugly new pact on migration and asylum, allowing EU governments to start talks with the European Parliament to agree on new rules that should replace Dublin. The reasons why the compromise is bad were explained by the minister Matteo Piantedosi in his first speech during the Internal Affairs Council in Luxembourg: “We cannot propose a reform that would in fact be doomed to fail”. The negotiations took a long time due to Italian doubts. Italy has obtained some concessions which will allow it to apply the new rules in a more flexible and gradual way. Eventually Piantedosi voted in favour. The text was approved with a qualified majority. But, in seeking a balance between solidarity and responsibility, the compromise leans too much towards the responsibility of the countries of first entry. The underlying problem is the main measure of the Pact on migration and asylum: all countries of first entry will be called upon to create closed centres, on the model of those introduced on the Greek islands in 2016, where migrants can be detained pending a decision on the request for asylum or repatriation. In the absence of mandatory relocations between member states and a functioning return system, a massive influx will force the countries of first entry either to stop applying the new rules, causing the collapse of the Pact, or to become submerged, with internal political consequences.