VATICAN CITY (AP) – New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio denounced the European Union on Tuesday for leaving Italy to deal with waves of immigration, saying the EU must come up with a Europe-wide immigration policy or stop pretending it’s a union.
“As a proud Italian-American, I am deeply troubled by the lack of action by the European Union and the way that Italy has been left to fend for itself very unfairly,” said De Blasio, whose grandparents emigrated from Italy to New York.
“Europe can’t decide to be unified some of the time and ignore important issues at other times,” he said. “And there needs to be a European Union policy that addresses the vast amount of immigration that is happening. It’s not fair to have Italy have to shoulder so much of the burden.”
De Blasio was speaking on the sidelines of a Vatican conference of mayors on climate change and human trafficking.
For years, Italy has been demanding the EU do more to help it cope with the waves of migrants who board smugglers’ boats from Libya and elsewhere in northern Africa bound for Europe. The EU has beefed up its Mediterranean rescue operations, but Italian demands that EU nations take in would-be refugees have stalled.