Following Spain’s Migrant Crisis, Meloni Calls for Expansion of the “Albanian Model

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is expected to propose expanding Albania’s model for repatriation centers, presenting it as part of the EU’s new policy to strengthen immigration controls.

“Giorgia Meloni is considering proposals ranging from the creation of new Albanian-style repatriation centers to even stricter economic agreements with African countries,” Corriere della Sera wrote today, ahead of the emergency summit in Ceuta convened by the EU for Tuesday.

Yesterday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen received the letter from 22 countries, as well as Sánchez’s letter, and accepted their request for an extraordinary video conference to review the crisis.

Twenty-two countries have embraced Italy’s tougher stance. Only France, along with Spain, did not sign the letter. But Giorgia Meloni now aims to impose a closed-border policy in Europe, even at the cost of suspending Schengen, as well as the Albanian model, involving repatriation centers outside the EU, which is already under consideration by the bloc.

This is one of the demands Italy will present on Tuesday at the meeting of EU interior ministers, convened following the wave of mass migration into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, on the border with Morocco, a situation that has since largely calmed down.

Meloni believes she has the support of Danish Prime Minister and Socialist Mette Frederiksen and hopes German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will also join the initiative. Palazzo Chigi and the European Conservatives group are applying strong pressure, as European Commissioner for Migration Magnus Brunner’s cautious stance toward the project has not been well received, even though it is included in the new Migration Pact, which entered into force on June 12.

Rome hopes that developments in Ceuta will accelerate the process and restart negotiations with 12 countries, which were revealed by AFP several months ago.

Preliminary discussions have been held with Rwanda, Ghana, Senegal, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania, Egypt, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Montenegro and Ethiopia.

Whether the proposal will move forward is expected to become clear as early as tomorrow, during the meeting of EU ambassadors. Media reports say Palazzo Chigi is convinced that a majority supports these ideas.

As evidence, they point to the letter promoted by Meloni and signed yesterday by 22 EU heads of state and government. France is absent from the list of signatories, but Italian government sources do not consider this a problem.

“Most governments share the Italian approach,” they say, adding that French President Emmanuel Macron has never wanted to join the “group of friends” on migration issues, which meets ahead of European summits.

According to Rome’s interpretation, it is France that is isolated in this case.

German Chancellor Merz had also taken a more cautious stance at the height of the crisis in Ceuta, but he signed the letter, which contains more moderate wording following diplomatic negotiations. Sources close to Meloni say there has been no direct contact between the two leaders.

According to the Italian prime minister, the images from Ceuta showed how urgently a European response is needed. She says the letter from the 22 countries is a sign that the Italian position is gaining support from an increasing number of states.

Only one passage in the letter is less critical of Spain, which is not mentioned by name: “Protecting the European Union’s external borders is not the interest of a single country, but a shared responsibility of Europe.”