Fausto Carioti
December 18, 2024
Once the European elections have been held, the Commission has been installed and the new political balance has been assessed, Ursula von der Leyen can finally take that step to the right in the fight against irregular immigration that the Italian government was waiting for. The letter from the President of the Commission to the leaders of the Twenty-Seven is part of the ritual preceding the summit which begins today in Brussels, but arrives just as the left once again raises attention on the centers in Albania. Which Giorgia Meloni promises to make work, despite having been blocked by the magistrates.
In the agenda sent to the leaders of the EU countries by the Portuguese socialist António Costa, new president of the European Council, it is expected to start again from the conclusions of the previous meeting, which took place in October: in that document the heads of state and government they proposed to evaluate “new ways to prevent and combat irregular migration, in line with EU and international law”. Interlocutory formula, due to the need to wait for the birth of the new Commission. An issue that has been resolved in the meantime, satisfactorily for the Conservatives and not at all appreciated by the Socialists and the Greens: an exponent of Fdi like Raffaele Fitto has been given the role of executive vice-president.
Now we can make the leap that Meloni and other heads of government were waiting for. Von der Leyen’s first promise is that «a more robust legislative framework in the area of returns will be one of the first major proposals of the new cabinet, and a proposal for a new common approach on returns will be presented before the European Council in March».
The President of the Commission also leans towards the “Albania model”, as has never happened before. “We are deepening our analysis on innovative ways to combat illegal migration, following the priorities reported by Member States,” he writes. In particular, “discussions are underway to put into practice the idea of repatriation centers in third countries”, such as the Albanian ones.
An important part of this effort concerns the game being played with the EU Court of Justice. It was a ruling by this body, responsible for ensuring the uniform application of community law, that gave Italian magistrates the opportunity not to validate the detention of migrants brought to Albania. The ruling of the European judges – at least according to Italian judges – has undermined the concept of a “safe” non-EU country: one whose citizens can be taken to Albania while their asylum application is examined, and repatriated if it is rejected.
The EU Court of Justice has been called into question by the Rome court and will give its ruling in a few months, but the definitive solution would be the drafting of an “official” list of safe countries drawn up by the Union itself, rather than – as is happening now – by the legislators national. This is expected to happen only in June 2026, when the new Migration Pact comes into force. Meloni, also yesterday, asked to bring forward the times, and von der Leyen agrees: «We have already asked the EU Asylum Agency to speed up its analysis of specific third countries that could be designated as countries of origin safe and safe third countries, with the aim of developing lists at EU level”.
After all, collaboration with external states is the only tool that works. The President of the Commission herself highlights that “in the first eleven months of this year the data relating to irregular border crossings into the EU decreased by 40% compared to 2023”. The numbers on the central Mediterranean route, the one involving Italy, whose traffic has reduced by 59%, are also “encouraging”. For this reason, von der Leyen explains to national leaders, “we continue to strengthen global and strategic relations with the main countries of origin and transit”.
Among the positive examples he cites the agreements with Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Morocco. Arrivals in Italy from Tunisia, in particular, have collapsed by 80% in the space of a year. The system that Elly Schlein accuses of “outsourcing border control without taking into account respect for democracy and human rights” is also the model that the EU now aims to extend on a larger scale. For the Democratic Party and other left-wing forces, the new European legislature increasingly resembles the worst-case scenario.
