On Thursday 12 July during an informal Ministers of the Interior meeting in Innsbruck, the European Commission will begin a consultation of the member states in an effort to start to implement the European Council’s migration debarkation platforms plan in third countries and identify the member states willing to host identical migration debarkation centres.
At an internal European level, the Commission will suggest pre-summer areas of work, explained Natasha Bertaud, the spokesperson for Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, in response to new declarations made on Sunday 8 July by the Italian Minister for the Interior, Matteo Salvini.
On Sunday the latter said that Italy wanted to, “Close its ports to Mediterranean mission ships when the latter have migrants on board who have been rescued off the Libyan coast”. The latter added that in Innsbruck he would, “put the request on the table to close Italian ports to international mission ships”.
The European Commission explained that according to the rules in force, nothing compels the host country of a rescue operation, including international operations (such as the former Triton missions or those by the new Themis mission) to disembark people in the ports of their country. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)