Italian Populists Drive EU to Toughen Its Policies on Migration
- Conte’s brinkmanship forces EU leaders into concessions
- Merkel to find out Sunday if deal placates Bavarian allies
This article is for subscribers only.
Italy’s rookie prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, emerged from his first European Union summit with a package of measures to stem the flow of migrants into the bloc and spread the burden of handling those who do arrive.
During talks in Brussels that wrapped up after 4:30 a.m. Friday, member states agreed to increase border security, set up holding centers to handle asylum seekers, and to impose tighter controls on the charity organizations rescuing people from the Mediterranean Sea. An Italian official said Conte has got about 70 percent of what he’d wanted.