Giorgia Meloni is one of nine EU leaders to have signed an open letter accusing judges’ interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights of preventing the expulsion of “criminal foreign nationals”. The letter, made public in Rome on Thursday, was signed by the leaders of Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

Judges on the European Court of Human Rights have protected the “wrong people”, when hearing “cases concerning the expulsion of criminal foreign nationals”, the letter claimed. “It is important to assess whether, in some cases, the court has over-extended the scope of the convention compared to its original intentions, thus altering the balance between the interests to be protected,” it added.

It continued: “We believe that the development of the court’s interpretation has, in some cases, limited our ability to make political decisions in our democracies”.

During a press conference on Thursday with the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Ms Meloni said the letter sought to “open a political debate on some European conventions and on the capacity of those conventions to deal with the great issues of our time, starting precisely with the issue of migration.”

The letter also outlined some concrete changes the nine states want to see. 

One proposal included having more autonomy to decide when to expel foreign nationals and having the ability to take effective action against “hostile states that seek to use our values and rights against us…by instrumentalising migrants at our borders”.

The letter also said: “We should have more room nationally to decide on when to expel criminal foreign nationals. For example, in cases concerning serious violent crime or drug-related crime. By its nature such crime always has serious implications for the victims.

“We need more freedom to decide on how our authorities can keep track of for example criminal foreigners who cannot be deported from our territories. Criminals who cannot be deported even though they have taken advantage of our hospitality to commit crime and make others feel unsafe.”