Italy threatens to pull EU funding in migrant row

ROME: Italy’s populist government warned it would pull European Union funding unless it agrees to take some of the 150 people stranded on an Italian coastguard ship, sparking a fresh immigration row with the bloc.

Dozens of people have been blocked at the Sicilian port of Catania on the Diciotti vessel since Monday because the Italian government is refusing to allow them to disembark without commitments from the EU to take some of them in.

But a high-level meeting of a dozen EU member states in Brussels on Friday to discuss what officials said was the broader issue of the disembarkation of rescued migrants, failed to produce a solution for the Diciotti migrants.

“The European Union has decid- ed to turn its back on Italy once again,” Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio wrote on his Facebook page, adding that his country had no choice but to “take a compensatory measure in a unilateral way ... we are ready to reduce the funds that we give to the European Union”.

“They want the €20bil (RM95bil) paid by Italian citizens? Then let them demonstrate that they deserve it and that they are taking charge of a problem that we can no longer face alone. The borders of Italy are the borders of Europe,” he added.

Di Maio had earlier warned that “if they decide nothing regarding the Diciotti and the redistribution of the migrants, I and the whole Five Star Movement (his party) will no longer be prepared to give €20bil to the European Union every year.” — AFP