European leaders to ask EU for easier expulsion of foreign criminals

By Louise Rasmussen and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Nine European countries, led by Italy and Denmark, will on Thursday call on the European Union to make it simpler for member states to expel foreign criminals, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

European governments have expressed frustration with how the European Court of Human Rights uses the European Convention on Human Rights to block deportations and they want to see it revised.

The letter, which was prepared ahead of a meeting on Thursday between Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Denmark's Mette Frederiksen, urges the EU to review how courts interpret the convention.

"We have seen cases concerning the expulsion of criminal foreign nationals, where the interpretation of the Convention has resulted in the protection of the wrong people and posed too many limitations on the states' ability to decide whom to expel from their territories," the letter said.

Member states should "have more room nationally to decide on when to expel criminal foreign nationals," it said.

The letter was signed by the leaders of Denmark, Italy, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

Meloni and Frederiksen are scheduled to hold a joint press conference in Rome on Thursday.

Meloni's conservative bloc won power in 2022, vowing to crack down on migration. Denmark has introduced increasingly harsh immigration policies over the past decade.

(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Alexandra Hudson)