It was in the notable and high-profile absence of the Italian Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini, that the French Ministers of the Interior and Foreign Affairs, Christophe Castaner and Jean-Yves le Drian, hosted a meeting of their European counterparts in Paris on Monday 22 July to promote a temporary disembarkation scheme (see EUROPE 12300/4).
Over the weekend, Matteo Salvini had indeed indicated that he would not attend and denounced, in a letter to the French Minister, the Franco-German ‘stranglehold’ on this subject of temporary arrangements, as the two countries had submitted to their counterparts, on Thursday 18 July in Helsinki, a new 'compromise' proposal to rally as many member countries as possible (see EUROPE 12299/1) around this plan.
The document, which is largely based on what has been discussed between Member States since 2018, aims to bring together at least 15 Member States and proposes, in particular, until the end of October or the end of 2019, automatic relocation to voluntary countries of persons disembarked in Italian or Maltese ports (the nearest ports) and a more rapid return of persons who are not eligible for protection. The latter is a concern for Italy, which fears that it will have to manage the care of all persons who are not eligible for relocation and who must be returned to their country of origin.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration, the African Union, as well as the European Commissioner for Migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, were present in Paris. The meeting was held while several NGOs announced at the same time that they would relaunch campaigns in the Mediterranean Sea to pick up migrants in distress, such as SOS Méditerranée or Médecins sans Frontières. At the time of going to press, the results of this meeting were not yet known. EUROPE will continue to follow this. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)