Sánchez holds his first meeting with Meloni today in Rome in which they will try to advance the migration pact

VALLETTA, 4 Apr. (EUROPA PRESS) - (From the special envoy, Daniel Blanco)

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will hold his first bilateral meeting tomorrow with the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, with the aim of taking steps forward in the Migration and Asylum Pact that is under discussion in the European Union.

The head of the Executive will land tomorrow in Rome and at noon he will be received by Meloni at the Chigi palace. Then there will be a meeting between the two leaders and a working lunch. Finally, they will make an institutional statement without questions, predictably at 12:45 p.m.

Sánchez arrives in the Italian capital after having stopped in Cyprus and Malta, on a new preparatory tour for the Spanish Presidency of the European Union that will take place during the second half of this year. Spain shares a similar reality with these three countries regarding the migration issue, although it maintains notable differences --especially with Italy-- in the way it is approached.

In any case, Sánchez has already advanced this Tuesday where his plans go, by underlining in Nicosia together with President Nikos Christodoulides his willingness to move towards an agreement that benefits all EU partners and overcomes the policy of blocs and At the same time, maintain a balance between responsibility and solidarity.

He also conveyed that he advocates an agreement that takes into account the countries of origin and transit, especially the so-called Southern Neighborhood of the Mediterranean, so that this is a sea "of peace, stability and prosperity."

In this regard, Moncloa sources point out that the discussion on migration is the most complicated of those taking place within the Union, and although they are aware of the difficulty, they will try to reach an agreement during the Spanish Presidency or move forward everything possible to leave the negotiation at the best possible point.

In this sense, they point out the importance of this trip, to see the points of convergence with these countries - all of them first entry of migrants - and that they can propose initiatives that serve to advance the agreement.

Sánchez will meet face to face for the first time with Meloni, after she became head of the Italian Government last year. Both leaders were scheduled to meet in December in Alicante, at the Med 9 Euro-Mediterranean summit, but the meeting was frustrated at the last moment due to a flu process on the part of the Italian leader that prevented her from traveling to Spain.

The two leaders have met at the European Councils in Brussels and also at the G20 summit held in Bali last November, but this will be their first bilateral meeting.

The interest in the meeting is even greater due to the ideological differences between Sánchez and Meloni, who has even participated in acts in Spain in support of Vox, before being elected prime minister. Specifically, in the Andalusian election campaign of June 2022.

Meloni participated in a rally in Marbella together with the party leader, Santiago Abascal, and his then candidate to preside over the Junta de Andalucía, Macarena Olona.