BFF-04,05 Italy threatens EU funding in migrant row

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Italy threatens EU funding in migrant row

ROME, Aug 25, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Italy’s populist government warned it would
pull European Union funding unless it agrees to take some of the 150 people
stranded on an Italian coastguard ship Friday, sparking a fresh immigration
row with the bloc.

Dozens of people have been blocked at the Sicilian port of Catania on the
Diciotti vessel since Monday night because the Italian government is refusing
to allow them to disembark without commitments from the EU to take some of
them in.

But a high-level meeting of a dozen EU member states in Brussels on
Friday, held to discuss what officials said was the broader issue of the
disembarkation of migrants rescued at sea, failed to produce an immediate
solution for the Diciotti migrants.

“The European Union has decided to turn its back on Italy once again,”
Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio wrote on his Facebook page, adding that
his country had no choice but to “take a compensatory measure in a unilateral
way… we are ready to reduce the funds that we give to the European Union”.

“They want the 20 billion euros ($23 billion) paid by Italian citizens?
Then let them demonstrate that they deserve it and that they are taking
charge of a problem that we can no longer face alone. The borders of Italy
are the borders of Europe,” he added.

Di Maio had earlier warned that “if they decide nothing regarding the
Diciotti and the redistribution of the migrants, I and the whole Five Star
Movement (his party) will no longer be prepared to give 20 billion euros to
the European Union every year.”

Migration is a hot-button issue in Italy, where hundreds of thousands of
people have arrived since 2013 fleeing war, persecution and poverty in the
Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Under EU rules people must seek asylum in their country of arrival, but
Italy’s new government has increasingly barred boats from docking at its
ports. – ‘Unconstructive comments’ –

Brussels quickly hit back at Di Maio’s comments.

“Unconstructive comments, let alone threats, are not helpful and they will
not get us any closer to a solution,” European Commission spokesman Alexander
Winterstein told a briefing.

“The EU is a community of rules and it operates on the basis of rules, not
threats.”

No deal was struck about the Diciotti migrants at the talks, as a source
at the European Commission said “this was not a meeting where decisions were
taken”.

MORE/SSS/0832 hrs

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However the source said they discussed “the need for a shared and rapid
solution for the migrants on board of the Diciotti as well as those most
recently disembarked in Spain and Malta.”

EU figures for 2016 say Italy contributed just under 14 billion euros to
the EU budget — less than one percent of its gross national income — while
the bloc spent 11.6 billion euros in Italy.

Di Maio, who heads the anti-establishment Five Star, said Italy didn’t
want the “mickey taken out of us by the union’s other countries” on the
distribution of migrants.

“The EU was born of principles like solidarity. If it is not capable of
redistributing 170 people it has serious problems with its founding
principles,” he said in an interview with state broadcaster RAI.

Italian media reports that some of the migrants had started a hunger
strike over their treatment. The coastguard told AFP they had “refused to eat
breakfast” on Friday.

Prosecutors from Sicily were travelling to Rome to question officials,
including Italy’s hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, about the
illegal detention of those onboard.

“If a judge wants to arrest me, I expect it, no problem,” Salvini said
Friday.

– ‘We’ve had enough’ –

Salvini stopped the majority of the migrants disembarking from the ship
after they were rescued on August 15.

His only concession was to allow 27 unaccompanied minors off the boat
Wednesday.

Salvini said in an interview with Corriere Della Sera that the only way
the migrants would be let off the Diciotti was “with a nice big airplane from
one Europe’s capitals landing in Catania”.

He also echoed Di Maio’s comments about EU funding on Friday, telling
Italian radio: “If in Europe they pretend not to understand, given that we
pay a lot, we will do what it takes to pay a little less.”

Opinion polls suggest that Salvini’s stance has boosted his far-right
League party’s approval rating to around 30 percent — a more than 10 point
jump from its showing in March’s election — and is now level with the Five
Star Movement with which it has governed Italy since early June.

However, according to Salvini’s own ministry, migrant arrivals are more
than 80 percent down on the same period last year, with just over 19,500
arriving up to August 23, compared to 98,000 in 2017.

In France, meanwhile, the presidency called for a “co-ordinated, long-term
European mechanism” to distribute migrants that would include Italy. “There
are forces in Italy that are looking to co-operate, we want to believe Italy
wishes to play the game,” the Elysee palace said.

BSS/AFP/SSS/0833 hrs