(see related stories on migration pact)
(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 28 - Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister
Antonio Tajani had talks with his German counterpart Annalena
Baerbock on Thursday amid a spat over Berlin's decision to fund
NGOs working with migrants in Italy, including a German one
conducting rescues at sea.
Premier Giorgia Meloni wrote to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
Monday saying that she was "amazed" that Berlin had made the
decision without liaising with the Italian government.
"Individual states' financing should focus on structural
solutions to the migration issue," Tajani said at a press
conference in Berlin.
"No one is waging war on the NGOs," added the minister, who is
part of a government that has passed regulations imposing a
series of restrictions on NGO-run migrant-rescue ships.
"But they cannot be magnet to irregular migrants who, as chance
would have it, are always taken to Italy, and nowhere else,
because it is nearest.
"NGO ships can rescue at sea, but Italy cannot be turned into
the place where all NGOs bring migrants, in part because they do
not want to come to Italy, they want to reach other European
countries.
"For this reason a European solution is needed".
Referring to the two countries' "'different opinions" on the
funding of NGOs dealing with migrants in Italy, Baerbock said
that "we talked about it today and we have done so before".
She added that, despite these differences, "in three cases the
disbursement of funds is imminent".
Baerbock stressed that almost 95% of the migrants saved while
trying to cross the Mediterranean are rescued by the Italian
authorities (ANSA).
Tajani meets Baerbock in Berlin amid NGO-migrants spat
'Disbursement of funds is imminent' says German foreign minister
