«Thanks for the mediations, but we ask for other changes»- Corriere.it

Italy finds it difficult to support the mediation proposal proposed by the Swedish presidency regarding the Council’s negotiating position on two key regulations of the EU migration pact, unless a solution is found «further compromise formula» on one of the «definitive» points in discussion. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said, speaking at the public session of the Internal Affairs Council in Luxembourg, that he is trying to find an agreement on the Council’s negotiating position on two key regulations of the EU pact on migration.

The minister thanked the rotating presidency for the “achievement of important results” in mediation, to which Italy attributed “much importance, however – he notes – remains in the latest text that has been circulated, with respect to the latest mediations that we had proposed, an insufficient, in our opinion, distinction as regards the connection criteria, which somehow exclude the definition of safe countries”.

«We had proposed specifications, which we considered reasonable, compared to the possibility” of “implementing initiatives of external dimensions – continued Piantedosi – and therefore to also project ourselves beyond the borders of the European Union, always, knowingly, in respect of fundamental rights, and therefore in respect of international law. We never imagined that the migratory phenomenon could be managed with agreements with countries outside the European Union that could present problems of respect for the basic rules of international law. But I see that there is still an affirmation of a principle of connection, which would exclude and therefore severely limit any action in this sense, on which we maintain the proposal to find some formula that is closer to what were the hypotheses of mediation that Italy had proposed».

«For us it is one of the themes», he adds, «so while thanking for all the mediations that have been developed, also in the direction of many points that Italy had proposed, which I consider important and for which I thank, this remains one of the decisive points. So we find it difficult to support it, if we don’t find a further compromise formula that goes in the direction we proposed », he concluded.

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