(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 22 - Premier Giorgia Meloni on Sunday highlighted the need to defend external borders and said Russia or criminal organizations steering the flows of illegal immigrants would not be allowed to undermine the European Union's security.
    Meloni was speaking at the end of the North-South Summit on European security and defence in Saariselkä, in the Finnish region of Lapland.
    "We want to defend external borders and we don't want to allow Russia or criminal organizations to undermine our security", said Meloni.
    The gathering was hosted by Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo and attended, in addition to Meloni, by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas, Greek Prime Minister Kyriákos Mitsotakis and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
    Meloni went on to say that the EU is dealing with "great challenges".
    "Our countries have often been considered and have found themselves on opposite sides within the EU, with the North and the so-called frugal (nations) on one side and the nations of the South accused of being spendthrifts, something I believe is a prejudice, on the other.
    "These nations are now here to talk about security, and this shows that we have understood that the world has changed and we can't deal with challenges if we don't understand the point of view and problems of others", she noted.
    On Albania and new Italian processing centres for asylum seekers Italy has built in the country as part of an agreement between Rome and Tirana, Meloni said she has summoned a meeting on Monday on the issue "to understand how to proceed", answering to a reporter's question.
    Italian judges have not validated the detention of the first two small groups of asylum seekers taken so far to Albania, referring their cases to the European Court of Justice - which had earlier established that applicants could not go through a fast-track procedure that could lead to their repatriation if their country of provenance was not deemed wholly safe - even after the cabinet in late October issued a decree listing 19 safe countries for repatriation.
    The European Court of Justice is set to rule on the referrals in January.
    Speaking about a ruling of the Cassation Court earlier this month that said courts could not disregard the decree, Meloni said "it looks to me like the Cassation ruled in favour of the government, it is the right of governments to establish which countries are safe" while judges can rule on a "single case, not disapply the totality" of the measure.
    Meloni also spoke about Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini's acquittal in the Open Arms case in which he was accused of abducting and failing to perform public acts when he refused to allow the disembarkation of 147 migrants from the Open Arms NGO-run vessel in August 2019, when he was interior minister, as part of a controversial closed-ports policy.
    A court of first instance in Palermo on Friday night ruled that there was no case to answer.
    "It looks to me like at the centre of the trial against Salvini were his political choices rather than actual crimes and that the jurisdiction was used to influence politics", she said.
    However, "today both I and Salvini are happy of the excellent work being done by the minister of interior", of infrastructure and of transport, Meloni noted, replying to a question concerning the possibility of Salvini filling the post once again.
    Later on Sunday, Salvini said dealing with security as interior minister is "something beautiful" he can once again aspire to after being acquitted of abduction charges by the Palermo court.
    However, the League leader said he was fine in his current post for the time being.
    "There is a friend, a person who has my friendship and my trust like Matteo Piantedosi at the interior ministry", said Salvini, replying to a reporter's question on whether he could potentially fill the position again after judges in Palermo on Friday night ruled there was no case to answer in the Open Arms trial.
    "Surely, dealing with security, the future, the peace and serenity of millions of Italians is something beautiful everyone could aspire to and, if someone in the past could say 'Salvini can't go to the interior (ministry) because a trial is ongoing over his conduct as minister', now this alibi doesn't exist anymore".
    "But right now, I am fine where I am.
    "Then I will talk to Giorgia (Meloni) and Matteo (Piantedosi), this government is a team of friends and so we will see", he concluded.
    Meanwhile, speaking at the end of the EU summit, the premier noted that "a lot is being said about what will happen" when President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
    "I think that we shouldn't follow rumours about Trump: I heard, for example, the last thing he said about Ukraine, 'we are working for peace but we can't have peace by abandoning Ukraine', which is approximately what I have said for years.
    "I would wait to understand exactly what is the will of the new president of the United States", Meloni said, in reply to a reporter asking her to comment on Trump's request to raise the contribution of NATO countries to 5% of GDP.
    Later on Sunday, Meloni visited an Italian military contingent deployed as part of NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission to safeguard the airspace of the Baltic Republics, after attending the summit in Finland to discuss security in the Nordic region and the Mediterranean and migration challenges.
    "The homeland is a mother, that mother wants to say thank you" because it "appreciates and recognizes the extraordinary sacrifices you make, the value those sacrifices produce for your nation", she told Italian military personnel during her visit to the air base of Šiauliai.
    "Italy takes part in 37 missions abroad, we are the first contributors in Europe, the second in NATO, our professionalism, our heroism are requested all over the world.
    "It is something that makes us proud but creates the conditions to defend the national interest at the negotiations that count.
    "My credibility and the nation's credibility walk in particular on your legs, the future of Italy in its ability to defend national interests flies in particular on your wings", said Meloni. (ANSA).