Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni holds the 2024 year-end press conference, in Rome, Thursday. [Alessandra Tarantino/AP Photo]
Italy’s government is ready to push ahead with a contested plan to hold asylum seekers in detention centers in Albania, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said.
Meloni struck a deal with Tirana last year to divert to the Balkan country some of the migrants Italy picked up at sea, saying the scheme would act as a deterrent against departures from Africa.
However, the flagship plan has met court opposition in recent months. Judges raised doubts over its compliance with EU law and ruled the first two groups of migrants detained in the centers had to be transferred to Italy, leaving the facilities empty.
Speaking at an annual news conference with parliamentary reporters, Meloni said the EU court of justice would start reviewing the case in February, adding that a majority of EU member states agreed with Rome on the Albanian camps.
Responding to a question from the public broadcaster ERT, Meloni said that she and her Greek counterpart, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, “talk about many issues on which we have a common approach, on issues of security, defense and migration.”
“Relations between Italy and Greece are excellent, as is natural between two countries that share a geostrategic identity and belong to the European Union and the Atlantic Alliance,” she said, noting that she and Mitsotakis sit next to one other in the European Council.
“Mitsotakis and I talk about many issues on which we have a common approach, on issues of security, defense and migration, which concern us as they do few other countries in Europe. But we are also talking about issues such as environmental protection and management projects, at a time when we are facing extreme climate phenomena.”
She added that a forthcoming intergovernmental conference between Italy and Greece in February in Rome will probably conclude with some bilateral agreements in the areas of security and civil protection. [Reuters, AMNA]