Red Sea, the rules of engagement for the Aspides mission to be voted on by parliament today

Tuesday 5 March is therefore the decisive day: at 9:30 a.m. the Council of Ministers' deliberation on the missions comes before the Chamber of Deputies in Montecitorio, preceded by the government's communications on the missions and international operational commitments to be launched in 2024 (Foreign Affairs Minister Antonio Tajani is expected to speak in the Chamber). Tajani will reply at 12 noon in the Senate. In the House chamber, after Tajani's communications, the resolutions on the subject will be voted on, including the majority resolution. The PD, which is working on its own document, should give the green light to the missions but not to the majority's premises.

Both deputies and senators will be called upon to vote on a government resolution that will allow the European operation in the Red Sea, launched by Brussels a week ago, to get underway. Without the green light from the Chambers, the mission for Italy cannot start. It is Law 145/2016 that provides that Italian participation in international missions must be authorised by Parliament.

With regard to the launch of new missions - this is the case of 'Aspides' and 'Levante' - the procedure provides in particular for a special resolution of the Council of Ministers to be adopted after notifying the President of the Republic and, if necessary, convening the Supreme Defence Council 'if the need arises'. The resolution of the Council of Ministers, the 2016 law further states, must be communicated to the Houses of Parliament, which promptly discuss it and, with appropriate acts of policy, according to the rules of their respective regulations, authorise the mission(s), possibly defining commitments for the government, or deny authorisation. Hence the resolution that will be before the faces of deputies and senators in these hours.

In the resolution of the Council of Ministers submitted to Parliament for consideration, it is stated that "the European Union Operation EUNAVFOR ASPIDES intends to contribute to the safeguarding of free navigation and the protection of merchant shipping in transit in an area of operations that includes the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and the Persian Gulf, with eminently defensive tasks, extended to the defence of merchant shipping in the area facing Yemen and the Red Sea alone, in coherence with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and in close coordination with other multi-lateral initiatives in the region".

The eve's expectation is for bipartisan support for the resolution. The goal of the majority is to obtain the green light from the chambers today, preferably with the support of the oppositions. On this front, the Left and Green Alliance group has put the adverb "eminently" in its sights, and is pressing for it to be replaced with "exclusively". "We will propose a change in the Chamber," anticipated Luana Zanella, Avs group leader in the Chamber. "We consider it legitimate to defend ourselves from attacks in the Red Sea, but this mission," stressed MP Marco Grimaldi, asked about Avs's position, "risks increasing the level of the conflict, especially if the attack on the bases in Yemen is authorised. We are inclined not to authorise' the mission. Given the pacifist line of the Five Stars, it is not excluded that M5s will also promote an attempt to oppose it.

In order to meet the opposition, and in particular the Five Star MEPs, rapporteur Pino Bicchielli (Noi Moderati) in the Chamber's Defence Committee has anticipated that the text of the resolution that will reach the Chamber in Montecitorio will include a change to the tasks of the Aspides mission in the Red Sea: from 'eminently defensive' to 'defensive'. An opening towards the oppositions. The Movement leaves the door half open for now: 'No blank bill of exchange, we are waiting to read the majority resolution'.

The preparatory documents of the EU Council that gave the green light to Aspides address the boundaries of the right of self-defence and the difference between the task of 'accompaniment' and 'protection'. From these texts it emerges that Aspides assets, while respecting the principles of necessity and proportionality, will have to have the capacity to neutralise different types of threats to commercial ships in transit, which may come from drones and missiles, without excluding maritime or air attacks.

In the Pd a position of support for the operation seems to prevail, even if the competition with the Five Stars does not a priori exclude the possibility of dissent within the party. On the Aspides and Levante missions in the Senate, explained Dem senator Alessandro Alfieri, a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee of Palazzo Madama, "we are going directly to the Chamber with the resolutions after we only did a preliminary investigation in committee and this is because the government has asked for the times to be speeded up. We protested,' Alfieri added, 'because you cannot think of bypassing the committee on such fundamental issues' such as rules of engagement or interoperability with other missions. In short, for the PDD senator, 'the majority and the government have arrived very late. Our orientation,' Alfieri said, 'is nevertheless favourable; we have obtained that it be specified that this is a European mission and one of active protection of vessels, not offensive'. The PD also asked that the objective of de-escalation be specified and that the government report periodically to Parliament on the situation.

The parliament's approval of the resolution does not seem to be at risk. In the meantime of its arrival, France, Germany and Greece, i.e. the European countries participating in the European mission Aspides, have already completed the internal authorisation process for the operation. Waiting for that to arrive is also that of Italy, which provides the Force Commander of the operation, i.e., the admiral officer who exercises embarked command of the naval assets participating in the operation. He is Rear Admiral Stefano Costantino.