meloni news brussels what happened

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is in Brussels to meet the leaders of the European institutions: Roberta Metsola (Parliament), Ursula von der Leyen (Commission) and Charles Michel (Council). This is the first major international outing of the leader of the Brothers of Italy as Prime Minister.

Alongside Europe in major common challenges. It is ready to defend the national interest, especially where the Union is “intrusive in the little things” that individual states could, and know how, “to do better”. Giorgia Meloni has been preparing for her international debut in Brussels for weeks. “Italy’s voice in Europe will be strong,” he wrote on social media. “We are ready to face the big challenges. Start from the energy crisis, collaborate for a quick and effective solution to support families and businesses and put an end to speculation. »

Photo Ansa / Chigi Filippo Attili

Giorgia Meloni knows she is expected with a mixture of curiosity and mistrust. And this must show the distance of the conservatives, who also chair the European Parliament, from a certain sovereignty which worries the European institutions. Meloni wishes to open a solid channel of dialogue in order to obtain an understanding of the most urgent files. Energy first, and manoeuvre. But also the reform of the Stability Pact, which risks penalizing Italy, the black jersey of the 27 with its debt.

Europe according to Meloni

Before leaving for Brussels, after having heard the Japanese Fumio Kishida, Meloni speaks about the European Union on the telephone with the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez but also with the Pole Mateusz Morawiecki. Of course, his idea is that of a Europe that must change pace, responding to the principle of “subsidiarity”. A “federal” union, which deals with “major issues” and leaves the rest to the States. We are interested in “energy supply” rather than “clam diameter”. Lack of “foreign policy but deals with gender”, the words he entrusts to the new book by Bruno Vespa.

Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament. Photo Ansa / Epa Tom Kalnins

Giorgia Meloni is just the first of a series of international events that will take her to Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, for COP27, the UN Climate Change Conference. And then to Bali for the G20 chaired by Indonesia. At the EU summit, he will perhaps recount the first steps of the center-right executive, which many controversies arouse in Rome, specifying that Italy is not a place where rights are denied, to start with the right to “demonstrate, to express dissent.”

“I will defend Italian interests”

Or where one thinks of renouncing abortion. “In all my life – he tells Vespa – I have never said that I would put my hand” to Law 194. But Italy, Meloni will not fail to underline it in Brussels, is a country which will be able to make its voice heard, and who will defend its interests. Starting with the licenses on the beaches on which there is a “disparity” of treatment with other countries which “have extended the concessions”, which is configured as “unconstitutional”. This will complete a week started with the first CDM and the first government measures, as well as the appointment of 39 secretaries.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Photo Ansa / Epa Andreas Gora