Von der Leyen writes to Meloni: “Half a billion for humanitarian corridors. We must avoid tragedies like Cutro”

After a dramatic event, there is only one thing to remember: “The moral duty to avoid tragedies like Cutro’s”. To say it, in the letter sent to the premier Giorgia Meloniis the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. It is the reply to the letter that the Italian leader had sent her after the tragedy in Calabria and arrives on the day when the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi intervenes in the Chamber and in the Senate for urgent information on the matter. For Von der Leyen it is necessary to organize the work on the migrant issue by rotating it around “three priorities: to cooperate with the countries of North Africa to avoid irregular departures, to develop safe humanitarian corridors and to increase coordination for Search & Rescue activities”. Then the announcement of an allocation, between now and 2025, of half a billion euros for the resettlement of 50,000 migrants in Europe through the humanitarian corridors.

In a note, Palazzo Chigi “expresses deep satisfaction with the words addressed to Italy and the action of the executive on the issue of migration” by von der Leyen. “From his words – it is explained – in fact, full awareness emerges of how there is a need for a concrete and immediate European response on the subject of migration”.

Von der Leyen: “The EU can manage migration”

Addressing Meloni, the president of the EU Commission explains: “I totally share your opinion that as Europeans, politicians and citizens, we have a moral duty to act to avoid similar tragedies. This opinion must therefore serve as a call to redouble our determination to bring effective and lasting solutions”. But remember that if “it is true that migration is a complex and constantly evolving reality”, it is also true that “we have shown that when we act together, the EU can manage migration. For example, with the millions of Ukrainians fleeing from the war in Russia” which “caused the largest displacement on our continent since the Second World War. It is clear that migration is a European challenge that requires a European solution”.

The Migration and Asylum Pact

In the text, the number one of the European executive also explains that we need to “advance in the new Migration and Asylum Pact to break the cycle of piecemeal solutions that do not bring sufficient progress”. From here, underlines Von der Leyen, three priorities derive: “Helping those in need of international protection, preventing irregular departures, fighting criminal traffickers, offering paths for safe and legal migration, repatriating those who do not have the right to stay”.

European funds for humanitarian corridors

In the letter – in which von der Leyen also copies the president of the EU Council Charles Michel and the Swedish premier (semester rotating president) Ulf Kristersson – the president of the Commission announces that, between now and 2025, the EU will make half a billion available for resettlement in Europe through humanitarian corridors of around 50,000 people. You also anticipate that, at the European Council of 23 and 24 March, you will provide a report on the state of the art of the operational measures put in place by Brussels so far.

Palazzo Chigi, well Von der Leyen

In expressing “full satisfaction” with von der Leyen’s words, Palazzo Chigi explains in a statement that the Commission’s willingness to intensify cooperation with the main partners in North Africa, to set up a framework for enhanced cooperation, to work on a ‘coordination of search and rescue’, to provide further economic support in the management of maritime borders, in addition to the desire to keep the migration dossier at the center of the next European Council in March in view of a future agreement on the New Pact on Migration and the Asylum correspond perfectly to the requests made in recent months by the Italian government to the European institutions”.

Furthermore, adds Palazzo Chigi, “the Italian government also expresses its satisfaction with the European Commission’s awareness of the effort that Italy has made in recent years in the management of migratory flows and in sea rescue along the main migratory routes of the Central Mediterranean”. President von der Leyen, the note concludes, “refers to further actions to be coordinated and undertaken at EU level to prevent irregular departures, save lives at sea, fight criminal networks of traffickers and prevent tragedies like Cutro’s from happening repeat in the future”.