Giorgia Meloni all’International Conference of the Global Alliance to Counter Migrant Smuggling

Dear colleagues, good morning everyone. I'm very sorry I cannot be with you today in Brussels, but I could not miss the opportunity to contribute, albeit remotely, to the work of the Second International Conference of the Global Alliance to Counter Migrant Smuggling. I want to address my greetings to all of you, and I wish to express my special thanks to Commissioner Brunner and to President von der Leyen also for the important announcement she just did. An initiative, the one we celebrate today, which is based on a key assumption that managing migration flows is possible and that a concrete alternative to irregular migration and human trafficking exists and is feasible. It is an alternative that puts legality first, that leaves no room for criminal organizations that profit from people's legitimate desire to gain better living conditions and that aims to build a model of cooperation and development capable of addressing the root causes of migration. Italy strongly believes in this alliance and supports it firmly because its objectives coincide with the approach that Italy has been pursuing for some time. This approach requires the broadest possible cooperation in order to achieve concrete results. That is why one of our focuses has always been on the external dimension. Today, for example, the Maté Plan for Africa, which is an initiative that the Italian government is pursuing, is no longer just an Italian initiative, but has become a European and international strategy which can count on synergies structured at various levels. A strategy such as the one we have consolidated, and I want to thank again Ursula von der Leyen for the work we have been performing together, with the European Union's Global Gateway. This cooperation is already worth more than 1.2 billion euros and aims to implement projects and investments on the African continent that can generate stable and lasting socio-economic development. But it is a commitment that Italy is also pursuing with its own process of migration and development, to which many of you are already contributing and which is proving to be a very effective tool for coordinating, for instance, collective efforts on assisted voluntary returns. Italy has also worked to propose innovative solutions which are now viewed with increasing interest and are gradually becoming common practice. I am referring first and foremost to the protocol we signed with Albania. I wish to greet and thank Interior Minister Cociu, who is with you in Brussels today, in order to process asylum requests and repatriation procedures outside the EU but under European jurisdiction. This model has been paved the way at the European level and this is demonstrated by the agreement reached a few days ago by EU Home Affairs Ministers on the introduction of the concept of safe third countries and the European list of safe countries of origin, as well as on the new return regulation which provides for the possibility of establishing return hubs in third countries. We have believed in these choices from the outset because we are convinced that they will ensure faster and more reliable procedures besides being an effective deterrent to those who have made human trafficking a heinous business. This logic also underpins the decision to launch a reflection on international conventions' capacity to address the challenges of modern irregular migration and of security. This proposal has gradually gained support and is now taking shape in an initial political debate in the Committee of Ministers in Strasbourg, formalized in a political declaration promoted by Italy and Denmark and signed by 27 nations, namely more than half of the Council of Europe. The results achieved in recent years encourage us to move forward and tell us we are on the right track. The drastic drop in irregular migration flows to Europe as well as the significant decrease in migrant deaths and disappearance in the Mediterranean together with training and legal migration projects prove that our cooperation is working and that the efforts we have made together are heading in the right direction. We must now work to consolidate these efforts, renewing our commitment to the three pillars that characterize the Alliance's action preventing, countering and providing alternatives to irregular migration. And I believe that one of the fields where we can make a difference if we work even more closely together is that of investigative and judicial cooperation. It is essential to maintain our focus on financial flows but also to equip ourselves with new tools to strike at the heart of traffickers' profits and operations. In this regard, Italy has welcomed the strengthening of Europol's mandate and supports the discussion on possible new sanctions regime against traffickers put forward by the European Commission to complement the judiciary and the various international conventions on the subject. So, dear colleagues, dear friends, today we are renewing our common commitment to combat human traffickers and eradicate what is, to all intents and purposes, a new and unacceptable form of slavery. We will do so with determination and conviction because the defense of human dignity is our guiding principle. That is Italy's mission and I am convinced it is also your mission. So, thank you very much and thank you, Ursula, for convening the meeting.