Migrants: Minniti, major Europe-Africa cooperation needed

Rome - "We are dealing with an extraordinarily widespread epochal phenomenon which we have experienced in the past and will probably experience in the future too. The problem lies in realizing that this phenomenon can be handled in a useful way and, Id almost say, in a definitive way, only through a convinced cooperation process between Europe and Africa". So declared Italys Minister of the Interior Marco Minniti, speaking in Tunis at the second meeting of the Contact Group on the central Mediterranean route.

"This is the place for solving this problem", Minniti emphasized. "Europe cant do without Africa and Africa cant do without Europe. And, if I may use a metaphor, Africa and Europe mirror each other. If Arica is well, if Africa is in growth, then Europe is well and in growth. If Africa is not well, then Europe is not well either. Their two destinies are closely connected. That is why this initiative is so crucially important." "Here today concluded the Minister as well as the Contact Groups European Countries, we have some new protagonists. Europe and Africa can work together, Europe and Africa have to work together".