- Italy, France, and Spain
In many ways, Italy has followed the lead of Spain and France in foreign policy. Both Spain and Italy’s first measures after emerging from a fascist dictatorship were to rejoin the European Community ie the European Union. Italy and Spain also share similarities in that they are both Catholic countries and are therefore more conservative than other countries in the European Union. Italy, Spain, and France are all a part of the Schengen Agreement which eliminated passport controls between its European member states and mandated rigorous controls for persons arriving from non-member states. But, Italy is most similar in foreign policy to France and their more nationalist take on foreign policy.
Italy is similar to France in foreign policy because France’s foreign policy is more nationalistic and central to the French identity which is what Italy has been following lately, especially with current events surrounding migration. Spain is also located in the Mediterranean region so it shares similar interests of migration with Italy. Spain is not as xenophobic as Italy due to the fact that the fascist dictatorship of Franco is more present in the minds of Spanish than the fascist dictatorship in Italy that ended 20 years earlier than Franco’s. But, Spain could become more nationalist in the future if it continues down a path many European nations are taking.
Italy has recently been more focused on state sovereignty in terms of migration policy and wants EU policy to benefit their own state needs of migration more than the EU as a whole. This is similar to France’s approach of nationalism in foreign policy and the fact that the country wants to look after its own interest. After Italy democratized in the 1950s, it was mostly focused on the European Community and not as much on foreign policy until quite recently. Until the 1980s, Italy was a country of emigration which then changed by the 1990s when economic growth transformed the country into a host country for migrants. Due to this new status and more migrants arriving in Italy, racism emerged in the country and the Italian government began taking a more nationalistic approach to foreign policy. This recent change in foreign policy also demonstrates how Italy has been working with the EU and it’s institutions recently.
2. Italy and Migration Policy
Italy has always played a role in EU institutions since it has been a member state since the inception of the EU and the European Community. An Italian has been President of the Council of the EU twelve times since 1959 with the most recent presidency being in 2014. So, Italy has always been involved in the functions of the European Union and its institutions.
Italy is located on the Mediterranean so it plays a large part on the frontier aspect in migration, especially as it is part of the Schengen agreement. Italy has recently had many issues with migration especially concerning the European migration crisis that is still ongoing. Italy has been looking out for itself more in foreign policy because they do not want more migrants coming into Italy. Italy has threatened the European Commission to withhold funding from the EU if other member states do no accept migrants. The Commission says. “The EU operates on rules, not threats” (CNN) and that Italy and the EU must work constructively to fix this issue. The migration crisis has hit Italy especially hard so it is making threats instead of working with the institutions to try to get a deal with other member states. This demonstrates how tensions have been rising between Italy and EU institutions, specifically the European Commission in order to come to a consensus.
The Italian government has also had tensions with the EU and the European Commission over the budget deficit. Italy wants to break the deficit rule to help out poor Italian citizens. This would mean an increase in spending on tax cuts, more benefits spending, and a lower retirement age and would break the 2.4 percent target set by the EU for 2019. The Commission is not exactly willing to budge on this, and have expressed serious concern, and Italy knows that increasing their deficit is against EU rules. The Commission is unlikely to support the Italian increase in their budget which means that Italy will need to re-submit a budget proposal. This ongoing issue of the budget deficit, along with the migration policy issues, demonstrate how Italy is trying to express sovereignty and have the rules bent or benefit their country. But, EU institutions are not willing to let Italy go against EU rules and be an exception to these rules. Threats will not help Italy get what they want but instead, working with the institutions that they have long been a part of could benefit them to come to a consensus and enact a useful migration policy and financial plan.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-22/italy-set-to-tell-eu-it-won-t-back-down-on-2-4-deficit-target
https://www.britannica.com/place/Italy/Immigration-and-foreign-policy
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-hits-back-hard-at-italys-budget-threat-in-migration-row/
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/24/europe/eu-italy-migration-intl/index.html
Glencross, Andrew. 2014. “EU Policy-Making in Action.” The Politics of European Integration.
You did a really great job providing the parallels between Italy and France (and Spain) and how their shared histories and identities have lead them to make similar choices and hold similar views. All three have been apart of the EU for while and its interesting to see how there views have changed from ones of European unity to more nationally focused. Italy’s location on the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas make it a prime location for migrants to enter on their way further north and west. My case study Albania, is positioned in the same spot and has been having a similar problem will mass populations coming through and then having no where to go after. I think it would be really interesting to include a point about how Italy interacted with the EU institutions concerning the debt crisis and also what we talked about in class about their increasing budget deficit
I think it would be beneficial if you were to describe how Italy’s approach to the immigration crisis relates to that of France or Spain. As Spain is also located on the Mediterranean, I imagine you could draw many parallels between the two countries, but I would be interested to see where the parallels are between the refugee crisis Italy vs France–perhaps take a look into the controversy of Calais and Le Pen’s anti-migrant rhetoric. Also, in question 1 you may went to specify how France and Italy take a nationalistic approach.