Italian Premier Matteo Renzi on
Wednesday said the Italian government's objective during the
European Commission's Valletta Summit on migration is to "put
Africa at the centre of European initiatives on migration", in a
front-page essay in the Catholic Church-affiliated Italian daily
Avvenire.
"It's useless to cry over the thousands of sisters and
brothers who have died in the Mediterranean, if one doesn't have
the strength to react," Renzi said.
Renzi suggested intervention in the migrants' countries of
origin in order to "create conditions suited to the cultural,
labour, and economic growth of every potential migrant, so that
Europe is a choice, not a necessary landing, an unrelenting
destiny".
Renzi said Italy will be "among the main contributors" to
an EU trust fund aimed at addressing the root causes of
migration in Africa.
"It will be an operating tool of an innovative cooperation
between countries that don't want to limit themselves to
reacting or halting the flow of the migrant phenomenon, but want
to accompany it with political and not emergency choices," Renzi
said.
Renzi is at the summit in Malta among 60 heads of state and
government, and called the two-day event "a great opportunity"
for Italy "to set itself apart and rediscover its role in the
Mediterranean".
"It's also an opportunity for Europe, to rediscover the
soul lost under piles of dusty bureaucratic paperwork," he said.
Renzi highlighted Italy's role in the rescue of migrants
from the Mediterranean and called the migrant crisis "a
humanitarian catastrophe that requires all of our attention".
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