Description
Added on the 18/09/2023 11:13:08 - Copyright : France 24 EN
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni visit Lampedusa following a recent surge in migrant arrivals to the small Italian island. During her visit, von der Leyen said irregular migration was a "European challenge" needing a "European answer", offering a 10-point plan to help Rome deal with the crisis. This week a record of around 8,500 people -- more than the island's entire local population -- have arrived in around 200 boats, according to the UN migration agency. IMAGES
Spanish humanitarian ship Open Arms arrives off the island of Lampedusa with 147 migrants on board, after a judge in Rome suspended far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini's decree banning them from Italy's territorial waters. IMAGES
Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni visits an under-construction asylum processing centre in Albania, set to be run by Italy, with her Albanian counterpart Edi Rama, days ahead of European elections. Under a controversial deal between Rome and Tirana, Albania has agreed to take in asylum seekers plucked from the seas off Italy, register them at a migrant centre on the Adriatic Sea and then house them at another centre inland while their claims are processed. IMAGES
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says Ukraine has an "urgent, critical need for more air defence", at a G7 foreign ministers meeting on Capri. Ukraine has struggled on the battlefield for months, outgunned and outnumbered by Russian forces amid a shortage of Western military aid. SOUNDBITE
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledges to find a way around Hungary's block on a 50 billion euro aid package for Ukraine at a summit early next year. "We will have an operational solution" she says, speaking after a crunch EU summit in Brussels where member states agreed to begin membership talks with Kyiv, despite opposition from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. SOUNDBITE
The head of the European Parliament vows that MEPs will be subject to new rules against "corruption" and "foreign interference" after a graft scandal linked to Qatar and Morocco. SOUNDBITE
|
Support : Technical 
- Content 
- Editors 
