Meeting at the Viminale between Piantedosi and the Lithuanian Minister: the focus on the reform of repatriations and migration policies 

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi received his Lithuanian counterpart Vladislav Kondratovič at the Viminale. At the centre of the meeting was the management of migratory flows and the need to strengthen cooperation between Italy and Lithuania to ensure the security of external borders of the European Union. The Minister underlined the importance of a reform of the Return Directive and of strengthening European funds for the reintegration of migrants in their countries of origin.

The Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi met yesterday, Friday 7 February at the Viminale his Lithuanian counterpart Vladislav Kondratovič.

"Although our countries are exposed to migratory flows of different nature – Piantedosi declared – We must continue to work together to effectively and uniformly manage this phenomenon, with the aim of ensuring the protection of the external borders of the European Union and combating traffickers.".

"Nationally – continues the Minister of the Interior – we have experienced how important it is to collaborate with third countries of origin and transit, to make repatriation projects directly from those countries more effective. In this regard, it would be important to obtain a strengthening of funds at European level to support a stable socio-economic reintegration of migrants in their country of origin. The success of this strategy cannot ignore the proposal for a new and more incisive reform of the Return Directive, which provides for mechanisms for the regionalization of returns, to transfer illegal immigrants to neighboring countries, when it is not possible to readmit them to their country of origin".

"The challenges that Italy and Lithuania are called to face – concluded Minister Piantedosi – see us united by our common membership in the European Union and the Atlantic Alliance, two organizations that have guaranteed decades of peace and well-being to our peoples. This closeness is demonstrated not only by the recent visit of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to the NATO base in Lithuania, but also by the added value represented by the Lithuanian community present in Italy, well integrated and dynamic”.