Nine European leaders have called for a rethink and reform of the European Convention on Human Rights to make it easier to expel migrants who have committed crimes. The initiative is led by the prime ministers of Italy and Denmark - Giorgia Meloni and Mette Frederiksen - who have criticized the European Court of Human Rights for overly broad interpretations of the Convention, which they say hinders states in their attempts to guarantee the security of their citizens, reports Politico, quoted by News.bg.
In a statement on Thursday evening, Meloni stressed that the time has come for a political debate on whether the current European conventions, adopted decades ago, still meet today's challenges, including those related to migration. Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland also signed the initiative.
The countries are demanding more freedom in making decisions on the expulsion of convicted foreigners, as well as effective mechanisms for controlling persons who cannot be returned for legal or humanitarian reasons.
They are also calling on European institutions to respond to cases where migration is used as a means of political pressure by hostile countries - such as Belarus. On this occasion, Lithuania filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice in The Hague this week, accusing Minsk of deliberately facilitating illegal border crossings with the aim of destabilizing the European Union.