From the lunge against the ECB on interest rates to the issue of migrants, passing through the thorny issue of the Mes, which must be addressed later because untying this knot now would mean going against “the Italian national interest”. In view of today’s and tomorrow’s Brussels European Council, the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
she presented herself yesterday to the Chambers to illustrate the government’s position on the most urgent European dossiers that will be on the table of the 27 EU leaders. On the agenda of the Council, support for Ukraine, the economy, security and defence, migration and external relations (in particular, the 27 heads of state and government will hold a strategic discussion on China).
In her long report, the Prime Minister focused on the choice of the European Central Bank to raise interest rates: a “simplistic recipe” and wrong, according to Meloni, because “one cannot fail to consider the risk that the constant increase in rates end up hitting our economies more than inflation, and that is that the cure proves to be more harmful than the disease”.
About the ratification of the European Stability Mechanism – on which the oppositions (starting from the Pd) have long been urging Meloni to take a clear position – the Fdi leader asks to stop the controversy to protect the national interest: “I want to say it with serenity but also with clarity – the premier points out – I do not consider it useful for Italy to fuel an internal controversy over some financial instruments, such as the Mes, at this stage”. For the tenant of Palazzo Chigi, the priority today is to tackle the negotiations on the new European governance “with a package approach, in which the new rules of the Stability Pact, the completion of the banking union and the financial safeguard mechanisms are discussed in their respecting our national interest”.
“It makes sense – asks the premier addressing the Chamber – that we proceed with a ratification (of the Mes, ed) without knowing the context, without knowing how the instrument fits into the general logic, without knowing what the reform of governance and of the Pact is of stability, without knowing what will happen to the banking union, to the guarantee on deposits?”.
Melons he also uses decisive tones when addressing the issue of migrants, one of the ‘hot topics’ of the European Council. The goal is to arrive at a radical reform of the Dublin rules, now “considered by all to be outdated”, explained the prime minister in her speech. The agreed proposals, she observes, go “in the right direction”: “They proposed that the States that had to refuse the relocation of migrants paid those that had to relocate the migrants. But I would never have accepted to be paid to transform Italy into a refugee camp of Europe. What we have asked for and obtained – remarked Meloni – is that those resources instead feed a fund to defend the external borders. Not to manage illegal immigration, but to fight it”.
Turning then to the question of conflict in Ukraine, Meloni reiterates once again “the firm conviction that defending Ukraine today means defending Italy’s national interest, because – warns the leader of Palazzo Chigi – the capitulation of Ukraine would bring with it the collapse of international law” . “Our hope is that a just and lasting peace can be reached as soon as possible”, continues Meloni, saying she is sure of the fact that Italy “has all the credentials to play an absolute leading role” in the reconstruction of the country attacked by the Russian Federation.
Speaking of Pnrr, in the replies to the interventions of the senators, Meloni then rejects to the sender the accusations made against the government on the delays in the implementation of the Plan and ‘punches’ the Commissioner for Economic Affairs Paolo Gentiloni (who today in Brussels, among other things, saw the secretary of the Pd Elly Schlein, engaged in a tour of meetings): “I am surprised” that the solicitations also come from Commissioner Gentiloni, “that I guess he had read the plan before and which today calls the Italian government into question, saying that we need to run and do more, but in short, if we had been vigilant a little more in the past – attacks Meloni – probably today it would be done faster”.
(from the envoy Antonio Atte)
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