Italy's Meloni defends plan to process migrants in Albania

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni defended her government's controversial plan to process migrants in Albania, saying delays were caused by those who "worked to slow it down or block it."

"When the new EU pact on migration and asylum comes into force, the centers in Albania will finally work as they were meant to from the start," Meloni said Thursday after an intergovernmental summit in Rome with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, Italy's ANSA news agency reported.

Rama, who said he would "do it a hundred times over" but only with Italy, reaffirmed his support for the scheme, which has faced criticism from Italian courts and opposition parties.

In 2023, Meloni and Rama signed an agreement to outsource the processing of asylum seekers intercepted at sea to Italian-funded, Italian-run centers in Albania -- an experimental arrangement closely monitored by the rest of the EU.

But ongoing legal challenges in Italy, where many judges consider the plan unconstitutional, have stalled what was meant to be one of Meloni's flagship policies.

Meloni blamed the two-year delay on legal challenges and rulings that halted deportations to countries such as Bangladesh and Tunisia, which she described as "safe" under European Commission proposals.

"If two years have been lost, everyone will have to take responsibility…the responsibility is not mine," she said.

Opposition leader Elly Schlein of the Democratic Party called the initiative "€800 million wasted to build empty prisons."

Giuseppe Conte, head of the Five Star Movement, said: "For the first time, Meloni admits we've lost two years in Albania."

Despite the criticism, Meloni hailed the summit as a "historic day" for relations between Italy and Albania, which signed 15 new agreements on defense, cybersecurity, culture and economic cooperation.