Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni scored a major victory on Monday as Albania’s Constitutional Court upheld a plan by Rome and Tirana to open asylum processing centers on Albanian soil for migrants trying to land on Italian shores, Reuters reported.

Tirana’s Supreme Court suspended the plan on December 14 last year, accepting two separate appeals filed by the Albanian Democratic Party and 28 other parliamentarians who sided with former prime minister Sali Berisha, an opponent of the prime minister’s deal. Minister Edi Rama with Georgia Maloney.

However, the Albanian constitutional judges did not cancel the plan, but only suspended its implementation pending a review of the merits of the case.

The appeals alleged that the deal violated both national law and Albania’s constitution, as well as international treaties signed by the country.

One of the issues raised concerns the nature and terms of the deal, which the opposition says cannot be considered a simple protocol between the two governments, as Albania has relinquished sovereignty over the sites where the asylum processing centers are to be built.

The opposition argued that given the broad legal scope of the document, the prime minister had to obtain the president’s permission to conclude the agreement.

But Albania’s Constitutional Court rejected those appeals on Monday, and the deal must now be ratified by parliament in Tirana.

What the agreement between Italy and Albania on migrants provides

The deal, unveiled by Georgia Maloney and Edi Rama on November 6 last year, has as its stated aim to reduce the number of migrants arriving in Italy by sea, which has risen by 65% ​​in 2023, reaching more than 145,000 at the start of the year. November.

The agreement provides that two camps for refugees with a total capacity of 3,000 people will be created on the territory of Albania, where some of the migrants who have recovered in the Mediterranean Sea and are trying to land on the coast of Italy will be accommodated and identified.

“I think that (the agreement) can become a model of cooperation between the EU and non-EU countries in the management of migrant flows. I think this agreement proves the brave European spirit,” Maloni told Italian daily Il Messaggero at the time.

In connection with this agreement, two Italian newspapers, Edi Rama, said that Italy was not the only EU country to offer such an agreement, but said that he accepted Rome’s offer as a sign of “gratitude”. Italy welcomed large numbers of Albanians in the 1990s, and Rome is now one of the strongest supporters of Albania’s EU membership.

“We are friends and between friends you help each other,” Rama said.

The agreement was criticized by the Council of Europe, which, among other things, believes that “the lack of legal certainty is likely to undermine key mechanisms for the protection of human rights and accountability for their violations.”