No10 hails Italy's 'innovative' migrant deportation scheme... just days after Starmer scrapped Rwanda plan
Sir Keir Starmer and Albanian PM Edi Rama
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Downing Street has hailed Italy's "innovative" deal to send migrants to Albania for processing - just days after Sir Keir Starmer scrapped the UK's Rwanda asylum plan
Sir Keir Starmer and his Albanian counterpart Edi Rama discussed the scheme as well as security at the European Political Community (EPC) summit at Blenheim Palace today.
The pair discussed support to Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression as well as an agreement to strengthen bonds.
Italy had planned to build two reception and detention camps in Albania which will host a maximum of 3,000 migrants at any one time, marking the first ever deal involving a non-EU country accepting migrants on behalf of a member nation.
Sir Keir and and Albanian PM Edi Rama
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Edi Rama
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Meanwhile, the UK government had planned to send certain people seeking asylum in the UK to the Republic of Rwanda, where the Rwandan government would decide their asylum claims.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said: "The Prime Minister was pleased to get time to sit with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama at today’s EPC. The two leaders discussed issues of European security including migration, specifically innovative solutions such as the Italy-Albania partnership.
"They also discussed support to Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression; and UK co-operation in the Western Balkans. The Prime Ministers agreed to continue to strengthen the relationship between our two countries."
Italy's government had previously stated that their Albania partnership cannot be compared to Britain's now defunct bid to send irregular asylum seekers to Rwanda.
LATEST FROM THE EPC SUMMIT AT BLENHEIM PALACE
Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama
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Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said last year: "Migrants will be treated according to Italian and European standards. This Protocol is not comparable to the agreement between the United Kingdom and Rwanda."
Meanwhile, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said that whether the UK would accept some asylum seekers in exchange for returning some migrants to the EU is not under discussion today.
When asked by BBC News what a potential return deal would look like, she said: "That’s not the discussions that the European Political Community is having. What their focus is is around security.
She continued: "The returns arrangements we’re talking about is developing returns arrangements right across the world… We’re immediately moving hundreds of staff into the returns and enforcement unit."
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani
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Meanwhile, Ireland’s Simon Harris said Sir Keir Starmer’s election win could be a "gamechanger" for UK-EU relations.
The Taoiseach told reporters that there was now a British Prime Minister who said "very publicly here today in front of European Union leaders and others from the European family, that he wants to have a closer relationship with Europe."