According to Italian media on Friday, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said that Italy and Malta have a common interest in the EU taking strong action on immigration.
The foreign minister was speaking to journalists in Palermo. Following last Monday’s formal protest to Malta over a boat with 416 migrants on board that the Maltese, according to the Italians, didn’t assist after it sent an SOS when in Maltese waters, he assured, “It is an interest on which we will never be divided.”
The minister was taking part, along with Maltese Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, at a European Peoples’ Party study days for MEPs held in Palermo last week.
And, also according to the Italian media, Dr Gonzi was reported to have agreed with sending back Tunisian asylum seekers.
ASCA reported Dr Gonzi as saying that “the asylum seekers coming from Tunisia do not have the right to that kind of protection that is due to asylum seekers coming from Somalia or Eritrea. The Tunisians are economic migrants. In that case, the solution is to send them back.”
Only one Maltese paper, In-Nazzjon (Thursday issue) reported what Dr Gonzi said in Palermo. Usually, as will happen on Tuesday when Dr Gonzi visits No. 10 Downing Street and meets David Cameron, all the media has been invited to go along. This time, on an issue – immigration – that is hugely topical and at a time of tension between Italy and Malta, only In-Nazzjon seems to have been there.
According to Corriere Informazioni, Dr Gonzi adopted a conciliatory tone when he addressed the meeting. Speaking in Italian, he talked about the friendly relations between the two countries and peoples.
He denied that the North African uprisings of 2011 resemble the 1989 pulling down of the Berlin Wall. Back in 1989, there was a common political ideal, led by well-known personalities and a strong desire by the countries involved to become part of Europe. And this process took years and years.
Today, Dr Gonzi added, revolutions are done in a few weeks, through Facebook and YouTube and they do not give us enough time to prepare for what is coming.
Dr Gonzi, according to this report, admitted Europe had been short-sighted, in that it believed that people like Mubarak or Ben Ali offered stability in the Mediterranean. He urged all EU member states to take this issue seriously, instead of thinking this problem involved only Italy, Malta and Greece.
“We have the duty of sustaining democratic processes,” he added, “not limiting ourselves to economic help. We must distinguish between those peoples that really want democracy and those others that want to substitute a regime with another regime.”
Dr Gonzi finally urged the review of the 1995 Barcelona declaration and the opening of a real dialogue with the peoples of the southern shores of the Mediterranean to drive home the point that Europe will always support those people that respect human rights.
In his view, this could be done if Europe were to benefit from the clean energy potential of the countries on the southern shore of the Mediterranean in exchange for more flexibility in allowing the entry of scientists, researchers and seasonal workers from non-EU states.
“But the irregular immigrants cannot stay here,” he was reported to have said: “it is unrealistic to think that Europe can welcome millions of people.”
The European Commission issued a policy paper on Wednesday that suggests border controls could be temporarily reintroduced in the Schengen free travel zone in extreme situations.
“It may be necessary (when) a part of the external borders comes under heavy unexpected pressure,” said EU home affairs chief Cecilia Malmstrom.
The Schengen treaty led to the abolition of controls and fences along the borders of much of continental Europe. Recently, however, France and Italy have squabbled about what to do with the thousands of undocumented immigrants who have arrived in Italy since the unrest in North Africa began.
Overwhelmed, Italy issued temporary residence permits, giving them the right to travel anywhere within the 25-nation Schengen zone. France, where many of the immigrants are believed to be headed, responded by increasing police checks along its border with Italy and sent back immigrants who could not prove they could support themselves financially in France.
While Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, as he usually does in pre-election times (there are administrative elections in Italy next Sunday), was blaming Malta and its government, the Italian government was coming under huge pressure from France which practically blocked all Tunisians crossing over to France by rail.
Last week, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy held talks in Rome that ended with a request to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso for changes to Schengen.
“The commission is currently considering the possibility to strengthen the application of the rules governing the Schengen agreement,” Barroso said in response in a letter published by the executive. “The temporary reintroduction of borders is one of the possible options.”
Currently only in the case of a “serious threat” to public order or internal security can a country impose temporary border controls.
The French wire service AFP has published what it says is a draft policy paper, in which the commission calls for the reinforcement of the pan-European Frontex border agency and “effective and credible” external borders.
The paper says there must be a control mechanism for countries failing their external border responsibilities or if the border comes under “unexpected and heavy pressure due to external events”.
“As a last resort in truly critical situations,” temporary border controls may be reintroduced.
Some countries, including Germany, are not interested in watering down Schengen.
“If you can improve the Schengen system, then that is good and you should,” German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said last week. “But travel freedom in Europe is such an important achievement that it should not be up for negotiation.”
In Greece, another country that has found it difficult to cope with hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants, the minister for citizen protection said on Tuesday that Schengen must be “jealously guarded”.
“In such a moment the EU should not seek solutions reminiscent of the time before the EU was formed,” Christos Papoutsis said in a statement.
One reform Greece is interested in is a change to the EU’s Dublin II regulation, which puts the burden of processing and dealing with immigrants on the country in which they arrive. Greece would like to see that responsibility spread among the EU member states.
The commission’s proposals are set to be discussed at an EU interior ministers meeting on 12 May and a heads of state summit in June.
Eyeball to eyeball, or chummy chummy?
It was billed to be a bruising clash between Italy and Malta.
On Sunday evening, Italian news agency Ansa reported that Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini had instructed the Italian Ambassador to Malta to file a protest over what the Italians claim was the island’s failure to rescue migrants off Lampedusa over the weekend.
The Maltese government on its part insisted Malta acted completely in line with its obligations when a boat carrying some 600 migrants fleeing Libya was located 42 miles off Lampedusa and 109 miles off Malta.
Rome notified Malta about the boat and the Armed Forces of Malta managed to establish contact with the migrants via satellite phone. An army patrol boat and aircraft were dispatched to locate the boat. Migrants had said the boat was taking in water but had carried on their way northward towards Lampedusa.
The migrants were eventually rescued by Italian boats just 19 miles from Lampedusa amid criticism that Malta had “ignored” the call for help.
The Italian Ambassador met Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg on Monday to express his country’s grievance with Malta.
No official statement was issued after the meeting but a ministry spokesman said Ambassador Luigi Marras had stated his country’s case while stopping short of presenting an official note of protest.
“The ambassador presented Italy’s arguments and the minister presented Malta’s case and gave an account of what had happened,” the spokesman said.
On the same day, all was smiles and courtesy between the two gentlemen as Dr Borg met Ambassador Efisio Luigi Marras and the Italian restorers of the painting Ecce Uomo by Mattia Preti.
Whether there was only one meeting or two is not known.
The restoration of the painting Ecce Uomo is being carried out on an initiative of the Italian Embassy in Malta and the Italian Cultural Institute in Malta, with the cooperation of the Maltese Ministry for Foreign Affairs.