Bn the summer there were hopeful signs that the EU countries were pulling together on the issue of migration. In June, two-thirds of them agreed to a voluntary solidarity mechanism to relieve the Mediterranean countries of arrival. This cleared the way for further steps towards asylum reform with faster procedures – and deportations. But five months later, Rome and Paris are at loggerheads over taking in shipwrecked migrants. The French government no longer wants to voluntarily help its neighbor after allowing the rescue ship Ocean Viking to dock in Toulouse.
That was the situation when the interior ministers of the member states arrived in Brussels on Friday afternoon, again for a special meeting, not to say a crisis meeting. The French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, had requested the meeting and he made a clear statement right from the start: Italy had “disregarded the law of the sea” by closing its seaports to the Ocean Viking. As long as nothing changes, France will not take on migrants from Italy, as promised.
