Last December the Council extended the mandate of the EUNAVFOR MED Operation Sophia until the end of March 2019. However, on 22 January Germany announced its withdrawal from the operation considering Italy’s reluctance to allow rescued people to disembark. The Italian Interior Minister / Deputy PM Salvini reacted announcing that “If someone wants to withdraw from it, then that’s certainly no problem for us”. Following this remark, the European Commission stated that it is up to Italy – that hosts the command and headquarters of the operation – to decide whether to continue or suspend the naval operation: “Sophia brought the whole EU into the Mediterranean, while Italy was alone there before 2015. If today Italy (…) no longer wants Sophia, we are ready to close it”, sources close to the High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini said. Operation Sophia’s main goal is to fight against the business of trafficking of persons and migrant smuggling in South and Central Mediterranean. In addition to this core task, it was set to carry out supporting tasks such as training the Libyan Coastguard and Navy, conducting surveillance activities, gathering information on illegal trafficking of oil exports from Libya.