Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday hailed a controversial deal to send migrants for processing in Albania as "courageous", saying it could act as an example to others.
"It is a new, courageous, unprecedented path, but one that perfectly reflects the European spirit and that has everything it takes to be followed also with other non-EU nations," Meloni told the Senate, the day after the first transfer began.
She added that Italy is working to implement an agreement on a loan to Ukraine backed by Russian assets held in the European Union,.
In June the G7 agreed during their annual summit in southern Italy to provide Ukraine with loans which will be underpinned by interest accrued from the blocked Russian funds.
"We will keep working to implement the agreement on the loan [to Ukraine] backed by interest accrued from Russian assets which are frozen in Europe, an important result achieved by the Italian G7 Presidency," Meloni told the upper house Senate ahead of a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels on Oct. 17-18.
