Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands hosted a coordination meeting, the main purpose of which was to discuss so-called innovative solutions to combat migration.
On Thursday, the political leaders of the EU countries gathered for a summit in Brussels.
Politically, one of the most difficult topics at the meeting is immigration, on which the member countries have different views.
Poland in particular has heated up the debate on immigration before the meeting. Prime minister of the country Donald Tusk wants to temporarily deny the right to apply for asylum to migrants coming from Belarus.
According to hardly, Russia and Belarus take advantage of the asylum system.
Prime Minister of Finland Petteri Orpo (co.) previously said that he supports and understands Poland’s proposal that the Union needs EU-level legislation that can limit instrumentalized immigration. Orpo does not consider it reasonable that each member state has to make legislation separately “that has tensions with EU legislation”.
Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands will host a coordination meeting on possible return centers
Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia MeloniPrime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands Dick Schoof host a coordination meeting on, among other things, possible return centers for asylum seekers with third countries. The meeting was organized before the start of the actual EU summit.
The meeting was a joint initiative of Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands. Its main purpose was to discuss so-called innovative solutions to combat migration.
The prime ministers of Austria, Cyprus, Poland, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Malta, Slovakia and the president of the EU Commission participated in the coordination meeting. Ursula von der Leyen.
According to Meloni’s office, the meeting focused on “the concept of a safe third country in view of the implementation of the rules of the EU’s new immigration and asylum agreement, cooperation with the UN and the International Organization for Migration IOM to support voluntary return along immigration routes and return centers”, says the online newspaper Politico.
According to the AFP news agency, Meloni presented the agreement between Italy and Albania at the meeting, which concerns the reception of asylum seekers arriving in Italy across the Mediterranean.
With the agreement, Italy has built two reception centers in Albania, where asylum seekers are taken to detention while they await an asylum decision or return to their home country.
Von der Leyen previously expressed his support for the return centers in a letter to EU leaders. In contrast to the arrangement agreed by Italy, the centers proposed by Leye would only send persons who have not received a residence permit in the territory of the Union and who want to be returned to their home countries.
AFP reports that several EU countries have shown great interest in the arrangement between Italy and Albania. Von der Leyen, on the other hand, says that the Union will “learn from it”.
According to Meloni’s office, the leaders who participated in the coordination meeting also agreed to meet again before the next European Council meeting.
In addition to immigration, Ukraine was discussed at the EU summit. At the meeting, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi presented his peace plan to the EU leaders.
Sources: AFP, AP, Reuters, STT