“Shared and pragmatic leadership” –

An hour of face-to-face meetings to discuss the European Union’s priorities for action in the next institutional cycle, starting with the main international crisis scenarios and the issues of competitiveness and management of migration flows. That’s how long the meeting at Palazzo Chigi between Giorgia Meloni and Antonio Costa lasted, who chose Rome as the first stop on his presentation tour of European capitals. The President-elect of the European Council walked through the entrance of Palazzo Chigi and then shook hands with the Prime Minister and also discussed the working methods of the European Council, with the aim of further enhancing its role and effectiveness. At the end of June, Meloni, in the meeting in which the green light was given to the European top jobs package, was the only leader to vote against the Portuguese’s candidacy for the presidency. A position that today did not prevent her from reiterating her best wishes for Costa’s work, expressing appreciation “for the intention of ensuring shared and pragmatic leadership of the European Council”. “It was an excellent working meeting – Costa said as he left the government headquarters -, for me it is now important to evaluate what the prospects and priorities of the various member countries are, and since Italy is a founding country of the EU it is very important to know and take note of Prime Minister Meloni’s priorities”.

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Paolo Gentiloni welcomed the meeting positively. “I saw that Meloni welcomed Antonio Costa today, he did very well”, underlined the EU Commissioner for Economy, declaring himself convinced that “we will get what we deserve, I don’t believe in retaliation. I don’t think there will be repercussions in the relationship between von der Leyen and Meloni. However, Meloni has chosen sides”. A choice that even Palazzo Chigi is convinced will not affect the negotiations on the Rome-Brussels axis in the formation of the future European Commission. The delegations already circled in red by Meloni are those of an economic nature, and therefore mainly industry, competitiveness and cohesion. The one related to the Mediterranean is not taken into consideration, even if Minister Raffaele Fitto, who will be one of the two names that Meloni will make to Ursula von der Leyen for the role of commissioner, does not commit himself on the subject: “I have no competence and role to determine what type of portfolio our government should eventually indicate”. Confirming Palazzo Chigi’s “great interest” in an economic portfolio is Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani, who recalls that the Council of Ministers will have to indicate the Italian member of the European Commission, “and if it is true that von der Leyen will ask for two names, a man and a woman, Italy will make its proposals.”

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“I said that Fitto would be the best possible commissioner, but that of Ambassador Elisabetta Belloni is also an important CV”, adds the secretary of FI, specifying however that no discussion has yet been opened on the director general of the DIS: “We have never spoken about it, there are no prejudices about people. There are also many other people who could make a good European commissioner among women. We will evaluate the names that will arrive on the table and the Council of Ministers will make its decisions. As for female names, FI also has names to indicate to the Prime Minister, then we will evaluate”. On the internal front meanwhile, from what is filtering from Palazzo Chigi, there are continuous contacts between Meloni and the two deputies Tajani and Matteo Salvini, who in recent days have attacked each other following the vote in Strasbourg that led to the Ursula-bis. An exchange however limited to normal dialectic between allies who in Europe are on different positions belonging to different political families. The situation, however, according to what has been learned, has pushed the Prime Minister to call the League and FI to order, advising them to lower the tone.