Giorgia Meloni and Olaf Scholz pledged to work more closely on boosting energy security and fixing the European Union’s asylum system.
(Bloomberg) — Giorgia Meloni and Olaf Scholz pledged to work more closely on boosting energy security and fixing the European Union’s asylum system.
The Italian prime minister hosted Germany’s chancellor for lunch in Rome on Thursday, and talks between the two leaders — who come from opposite sides of the political divide — focused on energy, migration, EU budget rules, and support for Ukraine as it fights Russia’s invasion.
Scholz told reporters after the talks that he and Meloni agreed to push ahead with work on a natural gas and hydrogen pipeline corridor connecting North Africa with Italy, Austria and Germany. “Cooperation on the diversification of our energy supply is very important to me,” he said, adding the project will “increase security of energy supply.”
The chancellor said he was confident the EU will agree new migration and asylum rules. “All attempts to either leave the problems with someone else or to point the finger at others will fail,” he said. “It is important to establish reliable cooperation with countries of origin and countries of transit.”
Meloni, whose party has post-fascist roots, echoed her guest who is a center-left Social Democrat. “There is now a consensus that a shift is needed on migration rules, and for this I want to thank Mr Scholz,” Meloni said. “We should meet half-way to overcome the Dublin Treaty rules.”
Based on jointly agreed EU rules, authorities are supposed to register asylum seekers in the country of arrival. But in practice authorities often let migrants pass on to Germany, a practice which has caused some tensions among European countries. Germany exempts Ukrainian war refugees from having to apply for asylum status.
EU ministers for home affairs are meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday and Friday in the latest of many attempts to agree on how overhaul the bloc’s immigration policy.
Germany is currently witnessing the arrival of an unusually high number of asylum seekers who are partly coming from Africa, Asia and the Middle East via southern European countries such as Italy.
Italy, together with other southern EU states, has called for a stronger European-wide distribution system which would share the burden of asylum seekers more equally among all member states. Other countries including Poland and Hungary have blocked the proposal.
Meloni, who took power at the end of last year, has taken a tough stance on migration, causing tensions with France. She discussed the issue during a visit to Tunisia earlier this week, where she is also due to travel Sunday with Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission.
Scholz said Germany and Italy plan to sign a bilateral action plan during a high-level meeting of both cabinets, the so-called inter-governmental consultations, in the fall.
–With assistance from Giovanni Salzano.
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