Premier Giorgia Meloni said Thursday the agreement her government signed with Tirana two years ago for Italian-run migrant centres on Albanian territory will keep going forward despite the many legal hurdles that have so far prevented it from taking off in earnest.

“Not everyone has understood how valid this model is,” Meloni said alongside her Albanian counterpart Edi Rama at the end of an intergovernmental summit in Rome.

“Many are working to slow it down or block it, but we are determined to keep going because it is a mechanism that has the potential to change the immigration-management paradigm.

“We have been discussing our Protocol with Albania with Prime Minister Rama over the past two years, and I would once again like to thank the Prime Minister, his government, and the entire Albanian people.

“They have demonstrated that Albania already behaves like an EU member state.

“Albania is capable of a solidarity with the countries it cooperates with that has rarely been seen.

“I consider the Protocol to be a far-reaching European agreement; it turns the awareness that migration is a European phenomenon into concrete action, one which must be addressed with EU member states and through cooperation between the EU and non-EU states.

“Prime Minister Rama can testify that several European nations have long been trying to join the Italy-Albania Protocol initiative, because everyone understands that an initiative of this kind is revolutionary for the management of migration flows.” The two governments signed cooperation agreements regarding various spheres at Thursday’s summit.

“Today is a day that can be considered historic for our bilateral relations,” Meloni said.

“It is the first time that our governments have met in this format and it is also significant for the quantity and quality of the bilateral technical and governmental agreements signed”.