Meloni: at the EU Council to seek solutions on energy, Ukraine and immigration

On the subject of the safeguard clause, the Prime Minister also emphasised that ‘the opposition’s claim that defence spending takes resources away from healthcare and education is untrue. It is false. Those resources are earmarked and cannot be diverted to other areas of expenditure’.

A key item on the agenda of the EU Council meeting on the 15th and 16th will also be the discussion on the next EU financial framework, regarding which the Council President has argued that ‘the starting point should not be how large the budget should be, but what Europe considers essential in the coming years. First we define the objectives, then we find a way to fund them. Not the other way round. That said, we have a number of reservations regarding the new own resources proposed by the Commission, but we are prepared to work on the basis of a clear principle: to ease the burden on national budgets as much as possible, without imposing new taxes on European citizens and businesses. We believe that we can and must also consider a more gradual repayment of the debt incurred for Next Generation EU, so that these repayments do not constrain other European policies precisely in the years when we need to invest the most.”

Still on the subject of the relationship between Member States and the European Union, another important point in the Prime Minister’s speech to the Senate concerned ‘Government decisions, which are not drafts that the bureaucracy can amend at will,’ she explained. ‘This trend whereby Heads of State and Government make decisions that are then systematically undermined by bureaucratic rules is unacceptable and must be rectified.’

A key part of the speech was then devoted to Ukraine and Italia’s firm support for Ukraine’s defence against Russian attacks. ‘Let’s make one thing clear,’ Meloni emphasised, ‘nobody wants war and we all want peace. The difference lies in how we think peace can be achieved. We are convinced that support for Ukraine is not an alternative to peace but is what makes peace possible. If Ukraine were to stop defending itself, we would not have peace; instead, we would be discussing Russia’s occupation of a European nation and a return to Soviet imperialism. Defending Ukraine is the only way to bring Putin to the negotiating table.”

Finally, a substantial section of Prime Minister Meloni’s address to the Senate was devoted to the issue of immigration. ‘If the message gets across that irregular entry can subsequently lead to legal residence,’ explained the Prime Minister, ‘there is a risk of encouraging further departures, bolstering the traffickers’ business model and undermining some of the efforts we are making to reduce irregular arrivals. And we cannot allow that to happen.’ In this regard, “Ceuta,” she continued, “has also taught us that a border crisis does not always arise on its own. And those who use desperate people as a means of exerting pressure on our borders are not merely forcing their way across a border. They are attacking Europe. And Europe must equip itself with the tools to respond.”

“For years in Europe,” continued the Prime Minister, “a deportation order has very often remained nothing more than a piece of paper. Today we have more effective tools, thanks in part to the new European rules, and the results are clear: this year, repatriations have reached their highest level ever recorded for the same period, and they continue to rise. I would like to thank Minister Piantedosi and all those who work every day to achieve this result. The message must be clear: anyone who enters Italia illegally cannot expect to stay here. And then there is the work being done along the entire route. Thanks to our collaboration with the International Organisation for Migration and with Algeria, Libya and Tunisia, over the last two years some 65,000 migrants have voluntarily returned to their countries of origin, even before attempting to cross the Mediterranean. That is 65,000 people who have not entrusted their lives to people smugglers.”

The Prime Minister’s speech also touched upon Italia’s suspension of the Schengen Agreement and the situation regarding Spain in the wake of the Ceuta crisis.

“It is difficult to argue,” concluded Meloni, “that Italia does not have the right to use a measure that has been used against it dozens of times. I would remind my colleagues that Italia has the same obligations as the other Member States, but it also has the same rights. We do not accept that defending borders is a right for others but a fault when it comes to Italia. The Schengen Code expressly provides for the possibility of temporarily reintroducing internal border controls for reasons of public order or security’, and that Member States have ‘from 2006 to the present day, Member States have resorted to this measure almost 500 times, and in over 30 cases the controls directly concerned Italia. France, for example, has maintained border controls with us for over ten years’.