简体中文
By APD writer Aditya Nugraha
**ROME, Sept. 19 (APD) ** - France and Italy have agreed on a new system to distribute migrants across the European Union. The agreement coms prior to European Union (EU) interior ministers meeting slated in Malta next week.
The agreement was reached by French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte here on Wednesday.
"The European Union hasn't shown enough solidarity with countries handling first arrivals, notably Italy," Macron said after his talks with Conte in Rome.
Italy has long been complaining about reluctance of EU member countries to share the burden from waves of migrant arrivals who took perilous boat sail to cross Mediterranean Sea.
"I am convinced that we can agree on an automatic redistribution mechanism under the auspices of the European Commission,” Macron said.
Macron said EU member states that don't participate in the new distribution system would be "punished financially", a demand shared by Italy.
Italy’s new government has shut Italian ports from humanitarian ships rescuing people at sea, leading to repeated standoffs with Brussels that were only resolved after several EU states accepted migrants on an ad hoc, case-by-case basis.
Conte said he had received French support for a system to redistribute migrants whereby the entire 28-nation bloc would automatically take a share of all the new arrivals in Italy as soon as they were rescued.
"Migration is a complex phenomenon. It's vital for Europe to turn the page towards the structural, and no longer emergency, management of migrants," Conte said.
France and Germany have reportedly given their approval to the new system, which could also involve Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania and Spain.
The migration issue is to be taken up by at an EU interior minister meeting in Malta on Monday, ahead of a European summit in October in Luxembourg.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
