French Prime Minister Michel Barnier will present his immigration plans today at a meeting with two Italian ministers on the border between the two countries, while many European countries are closely following the initiatives of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on this topic.
Barnier will travel with Interior Minister Brino Retagio to Mendon for a “working meeting” with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Interior Minister Matteo Piandentozzi. They will also visit the Italian Vidimile border crossing, a migrant crossing point.
Strengthen cross-border cooperation
According to an Italian diplomatic source, this meeting aims to “strengthen cross-border cooperation and cooperation in the field of migration” between the two countries.
This visit is the first that Barnier has made abroad, after yesterday’s short visit, Thursday, from Brussels. It is organized the day after a European summit that was occupied by the burning issue of immigration.
At the beginning of October, the governments of France and Italy agreed to create, at the beginning of 2025, a cooperation unit for the exchange of information on trafficking networks, based on the model adopted by France and Great Britain since 2020.
Barnier is also expected to soon present the content of a new immigration law, which he has committed to presenting by the beginning of 2025, just a year after the approval of the previous one, which caused a rupture in the camp of French President Emmanuel’s party. Macron.
The proposals from the far-right Brino Retagio once again divide Macronists. This bill is one of the conditions established by National Alarm to support the Barnier government, which does not have a majority in the National Assembly.
Disputes
European leaders have called for decisive action to “facilitate, increase and accelerate returns” of irregular migrants in the EU, although disagreements remain over Italy’s initiative to create pre-departure centers in third countries.
Following pressure from many member states, including France and Germany, where the far right has been on the rise, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed a new bill to facilitate the “return” of irregularities, in which the controversial central measure is also included. Pre-departure centers are just “a drop in the ocean” and are not a “solution” for “large countries” like Germany, estimated Chancellor Olaf Solz.
Spain opposes the creation of these centers, while France, which remains cautious, calls for “returns to be favored when conditions permit”, instead of migrants being sent “to pre-departure centers in third countries” .