A note of optimism has been expressed by European Parliament President, Roberta Metsola, regarding the new Pact on Migration and Asylum.

In an interview on September 27 she gave to a pool of agencies at the European Newsroom, including ANSA, Metsola said she is confident and optimistic about ongoing negotiations over the regulation regarding the management of migration crises, which as of September 26 had stalled due to vetoes from some member States.

Hope for breakthrough in coming days

Metsola said she hoped a breakthrough would end the deadlock "this week or the next," while admitting that diverging views were holding the pact hostage as it reached its last mile. "There is nothing new, but it should be possible to find a majority," she explained, stressing the need to do everything possible to reach an agreement.

The deadlock on the regulation, which contemplates a system of mandatory solidarity to redistribute migrants in case of greater numbers of arrivals, has driven the European Parliament to suspend talks on two other texts within the Pact - one for the European database on asylum requests and one for the joint screening of arrivals.

The issue for Metsola is that "it is not possible only to deal with the pillar of the security of immigration without the pillar of asylum."

The EP president noted that closing the phase that kicked off in autumn 2020, when the European Commission presented the pact, is "essential" also in view of European elections scheduled in June next year: "I cannot imagine facing voters and telling them that five more years have gone by," she said.

Open to possibility of naval mission

Ten years have gone by since the deadly shipwreck off Lampedusa, recalled Metsola, when "the Mediterranean sea was described as the largest cemetery in the world." Just this week though, the latest UN figures show that from the beginning of the year to date, more than 2,500 have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean, while trying to reach Europe.

Recent numbers arriving in the space of a few days on the island of Lampedusa have brought Europe's migration policy once more to the forefront of everybody's minds. Metsola said that Europe had a responsibility to deal with migration and that Italy should not be left alone to cope.

"A country that finds itself with the massive arrival of migrant flows, like that on Lampedusa, an island of 6,000 citizens which suddenly receives 1,700 people one day, more than 3,000 another, cannot be left alone and it cannot feel left alone," underlined Metsola.

The president of the European Parliament then extended a hand to the Italian government, saying a naval mission in the Mediterranean could be possible. "It is an aspect that we could consider in a positive way," said the Maltese politician, provided that the mission ensures that "fewer people lose their lives" and that "borders are respected."

Metsola appeared to be in synch with Rome on another point too --a controversial agreement between the European Union and Tunisia on migration promoted by Italian Premier, Giorgia Meloni. "Until we find a solution enabling us to examine asylum requests outside the EU territory, we will have to continue to hold dialogue with those countries from which migrants have no other solution than boarding a boat," she concluded.