Premier Giorgia Meloni expressed satisfaction on Wednesday after the European Parliament gave final approval to a regulation boosting member States’ ability to deport migrants and enabling them to open return hubs outside the bloc along the lines of Italy’s controversial migrant centres in Albania.

“Today, Italy has achieved a major success in Europe,” Meloni said in a video posted on social media while she was in Evian for the G7 summit.

“The European Parliament approved the new European regulation on repatriations, a historic measure and the result primarily of the work of the Italian government, which allows us to quickly repatriate those who are not entitled to stay in the European Union.

“The regulation also provides for the possibility to open repatriation centres in third countries, thus effectively following the path pioneered by the Italian government with the protocol with Albania, an innovative solution that the Italian and European Left attempted to oppose at all costs, but which, thanks to this government, has now become a tool available to the whole of Europe”.

The package also makes it possible to detain migrants who fail to respect expulsion orders or who pose a security risk or are at risk of absconding for up to two years.

Italy has two migrant centres in Albania, although the government’s ability to use them has been hampered by a series of judicial disputes.

This overhaul of the EU’s migration system should make it possible for the plan to overcome some of the legal hurdles that have prevented it from taking off in earnest.

The Albania scheme has spurred interest from other EU countries and also the UK, after the Labour government killed the former Conservative administration’s Rwanda policy.