Analysis: With her Albania deal, Giorgia Meloni sets the pace for EU migration policy

A year after coming into office, Giorgia Meloni has dared break a long-held taboo in the European Union's migration policy.

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00:00 Parking migrants outside the EU while analyzing their asylum requests. Italy paved the way,

00:07 the countries may follow soon. The Italian government recently struck a deal with Albania

00:12 to build there two reception centers hosting 3,000 people at a time. This includes those

00:18 rescued in the Mediterranean Sea by Italian authorities, excluding minors, pregnant women

00:23 and people with disabilities. Despite being located in Albanian territory, the centers

00:28 would be subject to Italian jurisdiction, something that could be a violation of EU

00:33 law. The European Commission for the moment remains cautious on the topic and after almost

00:38 a week, its analysis of a nine-page document is still ongoing.

00:45 Meanwhile, the idea of externalizing asylum procedures is being floated across Europe.

00:52 Berlin is exploring this possibility even if there are some reservations from Chancellor

01:12 Olaf Scholz`s socialists. Austria is suggesting to the European Commission that asylum procedures

01:17 be done from outside of Europe, as Vienna`s interior minister Gernot Kahn has said after

01:22 signing a migration and security agreement with the U.K. Denmark went even further by

01:29 passing a law allowing the processing of asylum seekers outside Europe, even if it`s still

01:34 in search of a partner country to work with.

01:38 Externalizing asylum applications outside the EU is not a new idea in Europe, but it

01:42 has so far never been successful.

01:50 These kind of deals will probably be promoted again in the future, but in order to do so,

02:14 they will have to comply with new EU laws on migration currently under discussion.

02:22 For more information, visit www.fema.org