Brussels - Rome: Agencies - Europe and the Arabs
Italian Prime Minister Giorga Meloni said that she is making international visits and contacts to address the issue of immigration, stressing that the only way to confront the problem structurally is to discuss it with North African countries.
And the Italian news agency (Aki) stated that the prime minister reiterated, in an interview with the newspaper (Il Sole 24 Uri), the focus on the need to “involve Europe as a whole, and there is a change in pace because the European Union is discussing today how to combat illegal immigration to Europe, through different methods.” The Mediterranean first, and then how to distribute the migrants,” while “in the past years, only this last part was discussed.”
Italy's Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, visited Athens two days ago and met with her Greek counterpart, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, to discuss issues such as migration and reform of the European Stability and Growth Pact (SGP).
The media platform "Euractive", which specializes in European affairs, said that Mitsotakisen represents - in light of the approaching European elections - a potential link between the European People's Party, of which he is a member, and the European Conservatives and Reformers Party in the European Parliament, to which the Fratelli d'Italia party belongs. (Brotherhood of Italy), a far-right party headed by Meloni.
It is noteworthy that, last July, the Italian capital hosted a mini-Mediterranean-African summit, the culmination of 9 months of relentless diplomatic efforts to reach a common pact on the issue of illegal immigration, which has been the main focus of the programs of the extreme right-wing parties for years, and tops the concerns of the successive governments in power in Italy since the financial crisis of 2008, and the resulting economic and social repercussions, which was the cause of disagreements and diplomatic crises between Rome and its European partners more than once.
 
Meloni had put all her weight, and devoted a great effort since assuming the presidency of the government, to address this file, which has been the main focus of political debate in Italy for years, and in which the positions of the extreme right were the main reason for her rapid rise and access to power. It is clear from the recent numbers of migration flows on the Italian coasts that this phenomenon is on its way out of control, if Italy is unable to reach an agreement with its partners and neighbors to deal with it jointly, as the statistics of the International Organization for Migration indicate that the number of illegal immigrants who crossed the Mediterranean and reached the ports Since the beginning of this year, the number of Italians has increased to 83,000, compared to 34,000 in the previous year.