Italy’s new populist government demanded the EU rip up its system for dealing with migrants at a mini-summit in Brussels on Sunday that laid bare divisions in the bloc over migration policy and piled pressure on German chancellor Angela Merkel.
Dubbed the “summit to save Merkel”, the chancellor was one of 16 European leaders at a hastily convened gathering in the Belgian capital ahead of a full meeting of the EU’s 28 leaders to thrash out a migration deal on Thursday.
The summit was requested by Berlin as a chance for Ms Merkel to press for stronger powers for countries to send back asylum seekers already registered in another EU country — a key issue in her battle with her domestic coalition partners that threatens her tenure as chancellor.
But Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte instead called for “radical change” in the EU’s so-called Dublin principle that makes frontline countries such as Italy responsible for dealing with asylum claims and allows for registered asylum seekers that move on to another country to be sent back to the state they landed in.
In an eight-point plan presented to leaders on Sunday, Mr Conte called for “severing” the link between the “safe port of disembarkation” and the “competency to examine asylum rights”.
At the moment, when migrants arrive on Italian soil only Italian authorities can process their asylum application. Rome wants this to be broadened to other EU countries, a step that would in effcet end a 25-year system for handling asylum claims.
“Whoever arrives in Italy, arrives in Europe,” the document said. “We must reaffirm responsibility and solidarity. Schengen is at stake,” the text said, referring to the possibility that border-free movement across some EU countries could be threatened if no deal is reached.
The summit came as more than 350 migrants were stranded in the Mediterranean Sea after being rescued by Mission Lifeline, a German charity, in the latest maritime stand-off since Italy’s new government hardened its immigration policy.
Lifeline’s own vessel — carrying 239 people — was left drifting off Malta, after Italian authorities this weekend insisted it should dock there but authorities in Valletta refused.
Meanwhile, the Alexander Maersk, a Danish cargo ship which had picked up 113 migrants with help from Lifeline personnel, was on Sunday outside the Sicilian harbour of Pozzallo, having been left there overnight without a chance to dock.
Tension between the EU’s biggest member states has fuelled concerns the bloc will not be able to agree on an overhaul of asylum and migration rules that have been under discussion for years, with increasing signs that smaller groups of countries could strike bilateral agreements in the absence of an EU-wide solution.
Mr Conte also proposed that “protection centres” for processing asylum claims should be set up in other EU countries as “hotspots” to avoid overcrowding in frontline states. France and Spain have backed a similar plan but the idea has been criticised by the Netherlands.
Sunday’s mini-summit had originally been intended as a meeting of a smaller group of countries, including Germany, Italy and France, but was expanded after other governments decided to attend.
Discussions between the EU28 on Thursday promise to be even more complex, as Sunday’s summit did not involve the four Visegrad countries — Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic — who have resisted calls from western member states to accept refugee quotas.
Ms Merkel is under pressure from leading figures within her own conservative movement to find a deal on migrant returns within days, or back proposals from her interior minister Horst Seehofer to toughen controls at the German border.
The German chancellor played down the prospect of rapid progress on her way into Sunday’s meeting, saying that “a holistic solution to the migration problem” will not come this week.
Diplomats pointed to some signs of emerging consensus on external border policy, with a number of member states backing plans to take migrants rescued at sea to “processing centres” in north Africa and other non-EU countries where they could have their asylum claims reviewed.
The policy, which non-governmental organisations warn would face major legal and practical hurdles, is designed to discourage migrants from making perilous sea journeys.
Despite dissipating hopes of an agreement on Thursday, Mark Rutte, Dutch prime minister, hoped EU leaders would use the meeting to thrash out their differences.
“I hope that at the end of today the steam is off, people discussed their controversies so we can reach a deal,” he said.
