Her decision France to welcome the 340 shipwrecked migrants picked up last month by the Ocean Viking in the central Mediterranean was certainly right and imperative from a humanitarian point of view, but at the same time EUROPE. on the brink of a crisis rooted in years of inability of Member States to deal effectively with refugee problems.

Now, having transferred the rescued to a secure military base, where in the first stage they will be provided with the necessary medical services, and in the second it will be considered who among them is eligible for asylum, the French authorities are now openly accusing the Italian authorities of “irresponsibility”. Paris accuses Rome of stubbornly and wrongfully refusing for twenty days to allow the Ocean Viking to dock in an Italian port and, in fact, “pushing” it into French territorial waters, thereby blackmailing France into accepting already exhausted passengers, some of whom were urgently in need of medical attention. French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin spoke of the behavior that would have a “strong impact” on the two states’ bilateral relations and “legal continuity”, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonnat told Le Parisien newspaper. yesterday that the Italian methods are “unacceptable”.

The French side has already announced the first “retaliatory measures”, which consist in strengthening border controls with Italy and canceling the admission of 4,000 refugees in Italy and who, based on European agreements, should have already been transferred to France. On the Italian side, the reaction of France is characterized as “incomprehensible” and “disproportionate.” Meloni’s government was quick to “thank” the French government for its intention to welcome Ocean Viking, even before Paris hinted that it had a similar intention. Which, of course, did not contribute to consultations between the two countries, where in one the ultra-right are in government, and in the other they hid. The French far right is now openly accusing President Macron of succumbing to blackmail by the ruling Italian far right, calling Ocean Viking the Trojan horse of the migrant invasion of France.

With this in mind, the focus of future consultations can be no other than Brussels, where migration management is once again rapidly coming to the forefront of current affairs, with the first and urgent request being the implementation of what was agreed in June (not implemented) to reduce the coasts of states EU, which are “on the front line”, i.e. in the Mediterranean. As for a radical approach to the problem, Emmanuel Macron took care to point out, speaking at the Paris Peace Forum on Friday, that if there is no international cooperation to combat the causes of migration flows, “we will continue to waste time and energy.” deal simply with the symptoms of the phenomenon.”

^{With information from APE-MPE}