Italian Foreign Affairs Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi has offered to allocate revenue from the disputed tax on large tech companies operating in Europe to African countries to stem migration flows across the Mediterranean.
Moavero also promised that the aid workers rescuing migrants in the sea would be put under closer control so that they could not become a factor attracting human smugglers.
READ MORE: Italy Denies Entry to Another Migrant Rescue Ship — Interior Minister
The idea was put forward several days after a two-day Brussels summit, at which the EU leaders agreed to transfer €500m to the EU's Trust Fund for Africa in a bid to resolve the migration crisis. The leaders also struck a deal to share out refugees on a voluntary basis and set up "controlled centers" inside the European Union to process asylum claims.
The deal follows weeks of diplomatic tensions over which country should take in immigrant rescue ships. The debate intensified after Italy's populist new coalition government barred two rescue vessels from its ports in recent weeks.
In late March, the European Commission unveiled plans to make tech giants pay a 3% tax on their overall revenue in the European Union, yielding around $6.1 billion a year.
According to the EU Commissioner for Economic Affairs Pierre Moscovici, the tax would cover from 120 and 150 companies with a global annual turnover above $920 million, one-third of which are based in Europe or Asia. The tax overhaul would target tech giants which several large EU members claimed to be re-routing their EU profits to low-tax countries such as Luxembourg and Ireland.
'Italian Success' at EU Summit
Sputnik has discussed the results of the EU summit with Tiberio Graziani, Chairman of Vision& Global Trends at the International Institute for Gobal Analyses. According to him, the summit resulted in the "Italian success," with the country's government led by the Conte-Di Maio-Salvini trio "strengthening its position within institutional context."
"The decision-making of Giuseppe Conte and his willingness to negotiate hard, brandishing the veto as a club, have, for the first time, broken the old rules of previous European summits and, most likely, inaugurated a new type of negotiation among the members of the European Union. Other European leaders will follow the example of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in dealing with the national interests of their respective countries. The Franco-German supremacy, after this summit, seems to be on the avenue of sunset," he said.
He added that with the EU migration summit, "a new Italian foreign policy has probably started." However, it will be necessary to wait for the NATO summit in July, the results of which will certainly have repercussions on the future actions of the Conte government at the international level, given the well-known Italian position favorable to Russia, he added.
