Good afternoon everyone.
I of course wish to thank Prime Minister Abela for the extraordinary hospitality, for the wonderful setting for the summit he has hosted for us here in Malta, a nation that is linked to Italy by deep cultural, economic and historical ties. I also wish to thank my MED9 colleagues for the very fruitful discussion we had today on a number of key issues on the agenda for Europe, starting with the upcoming informal European Council meeting to be held in Granada. 
As we stated in a letter we sent prior to the summit, Italy’s priority was and is the migration issue. I am happy with the alignment we found during this morning’s discussion, with most of the debate being devoted to the matter of migration. It is obviously time to address this issue in a concrete, structural and, if possible, definitive way.

Our discussion revolved a lot around this. Together with Malta and other countries of first arrival, Italy is among the nations currently suffering the most from strong migration pressure; however, all of us here are aware of the fact that anyone who may have thought it would be possible, in the face of the situation being experienced by the African continent, to close the migration problem within the borders of a single European nation, are clearly very wrong; they are making a big mistake. The geopolitical situation, the crisis situation, we are facing tells us all too well that we risk being the first nations to be overwhelmed, but in the absence of structural responses, everyone else will then be overwhelmed by this problem too.

A few days ago, I sent a letter to Prime Minister Abela asking him to address this matter: I must thank him for doing so and I must thank my colleagues because, in the final declaration, there are many concrete, serious elements that address the migration issue, including many that were put forward by Italy.

This summit has reaffirmed the way forward, as well said by Robert before me: combatting illegal immigration, relentlessly fighting human traffickers, addressing the causes of immigration phenomena and offering other responses to the African continent, which is in extreme difficulty.
We are essentially reiterating that the only way to seriously address the migration problem, the only way to help the most vulnerable, starting with those who really do have the right to international protection, is to bring the matter of migration back to a legal phenomenon. You don’t enter Europe illegally, it is not for the traffickers to decide who can and cannot enter Europe. Equally, however, we must give serious answers to Africa, which is struggling more and more.

To implement these principles, we believe the action plan presented by President Ursula von der Leyen in Lampedusa is an excellent starting framework; it is now crucial, however, to make it concrete and operational.

In this regard, we also had a discussion with President Macron of France and President Ursula von der Leyen in the margins of the summit, regarding the next operational steps that can be taken, that must be taken, above all ahead of the European Council meeting in Granada. 

As Italy, we brought our contribution to the discussion. In our view, some of the most important points are: the issue of readmission agreements for returns, which must be dealt with at European level and not managed by individual Member States, also through a European list of safe countries; the need to strengthen the fight against human traffickers, focusing above all on dismantling the construction chains for the means of transportation used for the crossings and on the financial flows of criminal organisations that are increasingly powerful and increasingly elaborate; agreements and support for authorities in North Africa to help them control their own waters and block the departures; immediate implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding with Tunisia, of the partnership we are trying to build with Tunisia and other countries in North Africa. As I was saying, [it is also necessary] to offer a credible alternative to illegal immigration, which above all means building a new partnership with Africa: this depends on a number of choices that we have to make.

We spoke about the revision of the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework. Italy, of course, but also the other nations that are here, expect there to be significant resources to help a continent that has very many resources yet is nevertheless experiencing poverty and, consequently, instability; this is unfortunately the continent that is paying the highest price of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

The first issue regards resources for investments, which must be strategic: there are a number of opportunities in the crisis we are experiencing. I am thinking of energy, for example. Today, energy is what can give the Mediterranean back its central role, that can go back to linking Europe’s and Africa’s fate. We have an energy supply problem, Africa is potentially a huge energy producer. With investments and adequate resources, we can change the future and tackle various problems together.
The second issue is, of course, legal migration, which we believe must also be supported by education and training in the countries of origin and which, in my view, must also be linked to nations’ ability to combat illegal immigration in parallel. For too long, we were not able to provide adequate responses to those who wanted to legally come to work in Europe, because immigration quotas were all filled by those entering illegally. We can no longer allow this to happen.

In the margins of all this, we of course also discussed Ukraine. Our position on this remains the same: we will continue to guarantee our support.

We spoke about the green transition. Italy clearly supports this, as long as it is done in an intelligent way: we must never forget that environmental sustainability must go hand in hand with economic and social sustainability. We continue to advocate technological neutrality to achieve the goals we have set ourselves.

We also spoke about the new Stability and Growth Pact governance rules. Italy’s position is very clear on this. We think that if Europe has set itself strategic objectives – the green transition, digital transition, defence – then those strategic objectives must be acknowledged and safeguarded in the new governance rules. We cannot go back to the rules of the previous Stability and Growth Pact as that would objectively be very burdensome for our economies to deal with; however, we must also be able to envision new rules that support the major strategic choices we have made.

I don’t want to go on, but I do just want to recall that, overall, the countries represented here, the MED9 countries, represent 46% of Europe’s population and 41.5% of its gross domestic product. Perhaps then, also thanks to our alignment on approach and alignment on priorities, our ability to work together in a united way can also allow the priorities we set ourselves to gain greater recognition and attention.

Thanks again, Robert, and thanks to all my colleagues.

[Courtesy translation]