"To be concrete, today, the question of the application of the law, which is the question that divided us with the Italian authorities last month, is not resolved": this is what Elysee sources say, answering a question on relations with the government of Giorgia Meloni after the Ocean Viking case, on the eve of the Alicante summit.
"We have not seen, in any case up to this point, any changes in the position of the Italian authorities on the application of flag state law. We consider that the law recalls the primary responsibility of the states of the Sar zone".
"As you know - added the Elysee sources - we are working with third countries to address the issue in a much broader way, that is to say not only between France and Italy, as instead happened with the Ocean Viking episode, when a certain number of third countries, and even European ones, were not involved in the discussion".
"We have focused on a Franco-Italian discussion when, instead, it is obviously a much broader discussion", reason the presidential sources in Paris, hailing the progress made compared to last month, in particular, with the extraordinary meeting of the ministers of the Inside the EU convened after the Ocean Viking case, on November 25, when "it was clear that it was a European question".
"Of course,
