MILAN (Reuters) - One of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s closest aides has warned France against escalating an ongoing spat on migration by limiting Rome’s access to the European Union’s post-pandemic recovery funds.
“I hope they are not referring to (the EU post-pandemic) funds,” as any such action would be “very serious”, Giovanbattista Fazzolari, Undersecretary for the implementation of the government programme, told Il Corriere della Sera daily on Friday.
With around 200 billion euros ($204.28 billion), Italy is the biggest beneficiary among the EU 27 nations of the so-called European Recovery And Resilience Fund (PNRR).
Italy demands “only respect”, he added, after French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Thursday that the migration row between Rome and Paris would have “extremely strong consequences for the bilateral relationship”.
France on Thursday agreed to welcome the charity-run Ocean Viking rescue boat into one of its ports, after Italy refused to let it dock on its territory with more than 200 migrants on board.
Italian authorities dismissed the criticism, saying the French reaction underscored Europe’s failure to deal with a rising number of migrants, many of whom reach the continent via boats from North Africa.
The Ocean Viking, carrying 234 passengers, including around 60 children and 20 sick people, docked in the southern French city of Toulon on Friday. About a third of the passengers will remain in France, while another third will go on to Germany.
The French-Italian feud is the latest episode in a European standoff over where to disembark refugees picked up after trying to reach Europe from North Africa.
The embattled French president Emmanuel Macron’s government now faces an increasingly assertive far-right led by Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National that has been highly critical of the incumbent government’s handling of migration.