Giorgia Meloni accused Russia of orchestrating illegal migration into Europe to destabilise the bloc as she called for stronger defence of the bloc’s eastern and southern flanks.
“We have to understand the threat is much wider than we imagine,” the Italian prime minister said on Sunday, during a North-South security summit between leaders of Italy, Greece, Sweden and Finland.
“We want to defend external borders and we don’t want to allow Russia or criminal organisations to undermine our security,” added Ms Meloni, a hard-Right politician who leads a conservative government coalition.
Some EU members, including Finland and Estonia, have previously accused Russia of allowing illegal migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere to enter the EU via Russia without proper checks. Russia is also said to use proxies in Africa to encourage migration into Europe across the Mediterranean.
Moscow has denied deliberately pushing migrants into the EU to undermine security.
Finland has an 830-mile land border with Russia to patrol, while Italy and Greece face threats at sea.
“What we understood in this meeting is our borders are very different, so they need different tools. What happens here in Finland, where a fence is useful, cannot be done in the Mediterranean,” Ms Meloni said at the summit in Lapland.
Ms Meloni discussed border security with Ulf Kristersson, Sweden’s prime minister (L) and Petteri Orpo, Finland’s prime minister – Antti Aimo-Koivisto
The northern and southern EU states have an important task in common, said Petteri Orpo, Finland’s prime minister, as in both cases “we are working to protect our external borders as well as those of the European Union as a whole”.
He called the threat along Finland’s border “an existential” question for the EU members and Nato allies.
While Nato remains the “cornerstone” of European security, Ms Meloni said attention must also be paid to critical infrastructure, artificial intelligence, cyber security, raw materials, supply chains, and especially migration, which demands a united, yet geographically tailored approach.
Ms Meloni also said she is working with Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, to work with African nations to help combat illegal migration to the EU.
She reaffirmed that she believes using third countries outside the EU to manage asylum requests remains a viable approach, despite initial obstacles Italy encountered with its processing centres in Albania.
The summit’s guests met Lapland’s famous resident, Father Christmas – JUHA KAUPPINEN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Meloni said the EU had been wrong in dealing with the issue of immigration over the years simply in terms of how to share the burden.
“Tackling the issue of illegal immigration solely as a solidarity-based debate was a mistake,” she said. “The result is that we have been unable to protect our borders.”
It comes as Italy’s deputy prime minister was acquitted on Friday over charges of kidnapping over 100 migrants aboard a boat he had blocked at sea for nearly three weeks in 2019.
After a three-year trial, judges rejected a prosecutor’s request to hand a six-year jail term to Matteo Salvini, the leader of the far-right League party, who is serving as transport minister in Meloni’s government.
The verdict came against a backdrop of tensions between the government and the judiciary over migration following a court questioning the legality of the plan to send asylum seekers to Albania.
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Publish date : 2024-12-22 11:01:00
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The post Russia threatening Europe with waves of migrants, Meloni warns first appeared on Love Europe.
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Publish date : 2024-12-22 21:04:36
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