LaRepubblica.it - Brussels asks Italy to "accelerate" in "giving the legal framework of the hotspot activities, in particular to permit the use of force in order to collect fingerprints and to retain any migrant longer who offer resistance ". This is an anticipation of the EU Commissions’ report on Italy.
"The relocation process from Italy is currently suffering from a lack of potential candidates due to a low level of arriving people, focused on nationalities that are not eligible for relocation," states the document. Brussels also expects more effort regarding the migrants by hoping that the Pozzallo and Porto Empedocle centers will open shortly since -as the Commission points out- so far only one of the six designated hotspot is fully operational which is the one of Lampedusa.
EU Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos reassures: "There are no tensions between Europe and Italy regarding the management, this process started two years ago," and we will detect "in very few time the real situation. Italy is now proceeding very fast and I want to publicly praise Alfano ". He additionally emphasized: "It is absolutely necessary not to mix refugees, migrants and terrorists. These people were not refugees or migrants, but grew up in countries where they conducted the attacks. Which means that we have failed in the integration process. We need to address the causes at their roots and not victimize all Muslims. " He also made clear: "We need to remedy a problem which has no solution, the reliefs are also concerning Malta, Cyprus and Greece", but regarding the two previous years. "All countries were taken by surprise" by the recent exceptional migration flows, said Avramopoulos, relying now on a quicker response. "The threat is not the Islam," he said, "actually, we need the Islam to combat extremism."
"This infringement procedure seems to me unfair and unreasonable but I am convinced that in the end, everything will be, in technical terms, shared" said the Interior Minister Angelino Alfano. "Because from a technical point of view we are right, as much as from a political point of view. The strategic plan of the EU consists in hotspots and the relocation of refugees and migrants, so of course we must open hotspots but it is also equally clear that the process of relocation must work.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has reaffirmed Germany's commitment of not closing the borders but at the same time she promised to her party “to reduce in a tangible way" the flow of migrants arriving in the country, acting on a European level: "In the night between 14 and 15 of September, thousands of refugees arrived in Budapest and walked on the highway to Austria. And both Germany and Austria have decided to let these people come. It was a situation which tested our European values. It was no more and no less than a humanitarian imperative," said Merkel. "It was a historic test for Europe - she added - and I say I'd like to see this test confirmed. This is why we will reduce significantly the number of refugees, because it is in everyone's interest, in the interest of Germany so that integration and the organization can function at its best and in the interest of Europe, for its worldwide position".
Posted by Borderline Sicilia
Translation: Catherine Scholz
