Tensions between France and Italy over the issue of migrants rescued in the Mediterranean are at the heart of an extraordinary meeting this Friday in Brussels (Belgium).
European interior ministers meet in the capital of the European Union (EU) as they worry about the rise in arrivals through the Western Balkan route.
The numbers do not reach the level of the refugee crisis of 2015-2016.
But the possibility of a new wave of arrivals this winter of Ukrainians, who are for millions of them deprived of electricity and heating because of the Russian strikes, also feeds European concerns.
The meeting was convened at the request of Paris, following the recent crisis with Rome around the humanitarian ship Ocean Viking and its 234 migrants.
The boat finally landed in France on November 11 on an "exceptional basis" after the far-right Italian government of Giorgia Meloni refused to welcome it.
Better coordination with countries of origin and transit
These tensions have revived the very sensitive debate on solidarity between EU countries on migration, while a reform presented two years ago by the European Commission is stalling.
In response to the attitude deemed "unacceptable" by Rome, the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced that he was suspending the planned reception in France of 3,500 asylum seekers in Italy.
This reaction is denounced as “unjustified” by Giorgia Meloni, who recalled that her country has welcomed nearly 90,000 migrants this year.
These “relocations” are planned within the framework of a temporary European solidarity mechanism approved in June, which France itself initiated during its six-monthly presidency of the Council of the EU.
A dozen countries have committed to welcoming around 8,000 asylum seekers over a year, France and Germany each taking 3,500. So far, only around a hundred relocations have taken place.
But in Paris, the Ministry of the Interior no longer wants a “situation where the same State
(France)
is called upon to accommodate ships on its territory and also to carry out relocations from other Member States”.
VIDEO.
Ocean Viking: Giorgia Meloni castigates an "incomprehensible and aggressive" reaction from Paris
In an attempt to relaunch this mechanism, the Commission presented an action plan on the central Mediterranean on Monday.
It aims in particular to strengthen cooperation with countries of origin and transit, in particular Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, to prevent departures and increase the return of irregular migrants.
This plan also aims to improve cooperation on rescue at sea between Member States, as well as with non-governmental organizations operating humanitarian ships, and "to promote discussions within the International Maritime Organization" (IMO) on "lines guidelines for those vessels carrying out rescue operations at sea”.
130,000 arrivals via the Western Balkans
For Paris, it is a question of “better framing the action of NGOs”.
"The idea is not to prohibit everything or to allow everything", but "currently, there is a vagueness on these rights and obligations" of NGOs, says one at the Ministry of the Interior.
Italy, like Greece, Malta and Cyprus, point the finger at humanitarian organizations whose “private vessels act in complete autonomy from the competent state authorities”.
Germany refuses to impose limits on the action of these ships carrying out rescues at sea. The High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, for his part recalled that "nearly 2000 people had died or been disappeared" in the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year.
This Italian official underlined “the vital importance of rescue at sea by all actors”.
But some of the Member States, including the Czech Republic which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, are more concerned about another migratory route: that of the Western Balkans, the source of nearly 130,000 irregular entries into the Union. since the beginning of the year, according to the border agency Frontex, an increase of 160%.
This route is the source of "more than half of the illegal arrivals of migrants on EU territory", underlined Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan.