The nine Southern European member states of the MED9 need to find “a common and coherent position to make action on migrants more effective,” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni urged in a letter sent to the partner countries ahead of the group’s upcoming Friday summit in Mdina (Malta), ANSA reported on Wednesday, September 27th.
According to the journal’s diplomatic sources, Meloni also asked the MED9 countries to insist on the rapid implementation of the comprehensive border control measures agreed to by a special European Council summit back in February.
In the final statement of that summit, EU leaders called for the European Commission to “immediately mobilize substantial EU funds and means” to assist countries on the EU’s external frontiers bolster their “border protection capabilities and infrastructure,” specifically referencing “surveillance, including aerial surveillance, and equipment.”
Apart from border protection infrastructures, the text also called for externalizing asylum procedures by building reception centers outside the Union—a measure stressed by conservative MEPs at the ECR’s Madrid conference on Tuesday as well—as well as urging the Commission to significantly speed up deportations. According to the Commission’s own data, only about 20% of economic migrants with rejected asylum claims were deported in the first six months of 2023.
Furthermore, Meloni’s letter also made reference to the recent memorandum of understanding between the EU and Tunisia, in which the North African country agreed to curb illegal departures from its shores in exchange for financial assistance from Brussels.
The Italian PM reportedly sent the letter to all other MED9 leaders—including those of France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Croatia, Slovenia, Cyprus, and Malta—as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President Charles Michel.
The Malta Summit of the MED9 (also known as EUMed9 or simply Med Group) will be the third such meeting in this format since Croatia and Slovenia first joined the members of the former MED7 in 2021.
