Rome has accused the European Union’s top court of interfering with national sovereignty after a ruling on Friday threw the future of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s plans to combat illegal immigration in doubt.
A case brought forward by two Bangladeshi illegal migrants before the Strasbourg-based European Court of Justice (ECJ) against Italy after being removed from the country and sent to an asylum processing centre in Albania undermined a key plank of the scheme, broadcaster RAI reports.
The ruling found that EU member states can only determine safe countries for the return of migrants if they provide evidence and allow for judicial review, meaning that one judge could block the deportation to countries they deem unsafe.
The ECJ said that the designation may not include countries that “do not offer sufficient protection to their entire population”. This could potentially mean that countries like the United States could be deemed unsafe for return, given that some states allow the death penalty, a justification that Italian judges have used to block the deportation of illegals to Egypt.
The decision comes despite the European Commission listing both Egypt and Bangladesh as “safe countries” in April to speed up returns. However, the court said that this designation will only be binding after the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum comes into effect in July of next year.
The ECJ ruling represents a major blow to the Albanian scheme negotiated by the Meloni government in 2023 to immediately send boat migrants to the processing centres in the Balkan nation rather than allowing them to remain in Italy after breaking into the country illegally via the Mediterranean Sea.
Former International Criminal Court magistrate Cuno Tarfusser told Il Giornale that the decision will make such removals “very difficult, especially in emergency procedures”. He noted that illegals would merely have to declare themselves as being LGBT or a persecuted religious minority, and their removal would easily be blocked.
Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, the leader of the anti-mass migration Lega party, said: “The ruling of the European Court is yet another slap in the face to our country’s national sovereignty, yet another incentive for limitless landings, yet another confirmation not only of the uselessness but of the harmfulness of European institutions of this kind, which are paid for by Italian citizens who, however, are constantly humiliated.”
Prime Minsiter Giorgia Meloni said that the ruling was “surprising” and accused the European Court of Justice of interfering in the democratic process. She argued that the ruling allows any individual judge to derail the immigration policy of a duly elected government.
“This is a development that should concern everyone – including the political forces that today celebrate the ruling – because it further reduces the already limited margins of autonomy for Governments and Parliaments in shaping the normative and administrative direction of the migration phenomenon,” Meloni said.
“The Court’s decision weakens policies aimed at countering mass illegal immigration and defending national borders.”
The Italian premier said that her government will “seek every possible solution” during the next ten months before the EU Migration Pact comes into force.
