This is how Defense Minister Elisabetta Trenta visited the school of La Marina in La Maddalena. "Today in La Maddalena testifies to the real and concrete commitment of Italy in the stabilization process in Libya. Today, a further training cycle was completed by the Command of the European Naval Force Mediterranean Operation - Eunavfor Med Operation Sophia-Sophia (Italian-led European mission) for Coast Guard personnel and the Libyan Navy. The technical assistance and training of the staff we have secured thanks to the precious support of our Navy demonstrates in an extraordinarily eloquent manner how much energy is investing our country to achieve the security goals that I believe should be common not only to countries that overlooking the Mediterranean, but to all of Europe.
By forming the local authorities, giving them our full support according to the established creties from the main international conventions, but especially according to the democratic standards that distinguish us, we assure the Libyan people full autonomy and a future, opening a concrete path towards peace and security only of the Mediterranean, but of Italy itself, also in terms of migration flows. These are facts. This is the work we are doing. In silence, without particular triumphalism, and with great responsibility ".
Operation EUNAVFOR MED Sophia it is only one element of a broader EU global response to the migration issue, which seeks to address not only its physical component but also its root causes, including conflict, poverty, climate change and persecution. The mission's main mandate is to undertake systematic efforts to identify, capture and dispose of ships suspected of being used by migrant smugglers, in order to contribute to wider EU efforts to destroy the business model of human trafficking in the Southern Central Mediterranean and prevent further loss of life at sea. As agreed by the EU ambassadors in the Security Committee on 28 September, the operation moved to phase 2 of international waters, which involves the embarkation, search, seizure, on the high seas, of ships suspected of being used for smuggling or human trafficking. On June 20, the Council extended the mandate of Operation Sophia until July 27, 2017, strengthening the mission by adding two additional tasks:
- training of Libyan coast guards and navy;
- to contribute to the implementation of the UN arms embargo on the high seas off the coast of Libya.