Migrant issue: EU pledges solidarity as Italy demands concrete action
Brussels, June 28: Italy will receive solidarity from the European Union on redistributing across the 28-nation bloc the influx of migrants arriving from Africa, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker pledged on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Italy's populist Premier Giuseppe Conte, who arrived here for a key summit of EU heads of state and government, stressed that frontline states like Italy need "concrete action" on migration from other EU countries, not just statements of solidarity.
"We must show solidarity. I have been pushing for this for years and it will happen," Juncker said on the sidelines of the key summit at which the controversial issue of migration will be a central topic.
Italy is the main arrival state for boat migrants from Africa and Conte could refuse to sign off on the EU summit conclusions if other states refuse to take in a share of asylum-seekers under a quota system.
Despite a sharp fall in arrivals by sea compared with the last two years, over 16,500 migrants have reached Italy this year and more than 700,000 have landed since 2014. Its new hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini is now taking a tough stance, refusing charity rescue ships entry to Italian ports and threatening to deport half a million illegal immigrants.
European Council President Donald Tusk has called for the summit on Thursday and Friday to agree to "regional disembarkation platforms" outside of Europe to weed out economic migrants from refugees, a dedicated EU budget for migration control, and more funding for the Libyan coastguard.
Liberal democracy is at stake in Europe unless nations swiftly secure borders and stop the wave of illegal immigration, Tusk warned in a letter.
Conte, meanwhile, said: "Italy has developed a plan to manage migrant flows which it is bringing to this European Council meeting."
"We believe the plan to be totally reasonable because it fully conforms to the spirit and principles on which the EU is founded," he added.
Italy and Conte himself had received "many manifestations of solidarity" in meetings with European leaders but now these statements needed to be "transformed into action," he said.
"We expect these words to be transformed into action. This is the perfect opportunity," he underlined.
Migration is to be a central topic at the European Council summit taking place on Thursday and Friday as Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel fights for her political survival over the issue.
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Congress standing with CM Siddaramaiah, will support him, says party President Kharge
Bengaluru (PTI): Congress President M Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said the party is standing with Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and will support him as he faces a probe by Lokayukta police in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) site allotment case.
Rejecting BJP's demand for Siddaramaiah's resignation, he noted that "neither a chargesheet is filed, nor he is convicted," and said, "let the law take its own course, and when a situation comes, the party will examine."
"When the Godhra incident happened, whether (Narendra) Modi ji had resigned (as the then Gujarat CM)? Several cases were also pending against him at that time, even against Mr Shah (Union Home Minister Amit Shah)," Kharge said in response to a question on BJP questioning CM's moral right to continue, with FIR slated to be registered against him.
Speaking to reporters here, he said: "Don't target a particular person to damage his image, through him the party will also be damaged. Your (BJP) interest is to damage the Congress party, not the individual. He may be here today or may not be, the party will continue. Just to destroy the Congress party and the Congress party's base votes, they want to destroy, that is why they are doing this."
Let the law take its own course, and when a situation comes, the party will examine it at that time, he further said. "Now nothing is there, (but) every day I'm seeing that MUDA, MUDA. Crores of rupees (have been) swallowed by industrialists, Rs 16 lakh crore of their debt have been written off, and now you are taking one small issue and fighting. That too neither chargesheet is filed, nor he is convicted. Every day this is news. I'm fed up seeing all these things."
Asked whether the Congress high command will stand with the Chief Minister, even after the registering of FIR, Kharge said: "that is a hypothetical question. We are standing with him, we will support him, because he represents the party, not (an) individual."
A Special Court here on Wednesday ordered a Lokayukta police probe against Siddaramaiah in the case, setting the stage for filing of an FIR against him.
The order of the Special Court Judge, Santhosh Gajanan Bhat, came a day after the High Court upheld the sanction granted by the Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot to conduct an investigation against Siddaramaiah on the allegations of illegalities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife B M Parvathi by MUDA.
The Special Court exclusively to deal with criminal cases related to former and elected MPs/MLAs issued the order directing the Lokayukta police in Mysuru to initiate an investigation on the complaint filed by RTI activist Snehamayi Krishna.
In the MUDA site allotment case, it is alleged that compensatory sites were allotted to Siddaramaiah's wife in an upmarket area in Mysuru, which had higher property value as compared to the location of her land which had been "acquired" by MUDA.
The MUDA had allotted plots to Parvathi under a 50:50 ratio scheme in lieu of 3.16 acres of her land, where it developed a residential layout.
Under the controversial scheme, MUDA allotted 50 per cent of developed land to the land losers in lieu of undeveloped land acquired from them for forming residential layouts.
It is alleged that Parvathi had no legal title over this 3.16 acres of land at survey number 464 of Kasare village, Kasaba hobli of Mysuru taluk.
