The new Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, has chosen Brussels, the capital of the European Union institutions, as her first destination as President, where she will travel next Thursday to meet with the Presidents of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, of the European Council, Charles Michel, and of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola.
The leader of the far-right party Brothers of Italy will thus begin her international agenda with bilateral meetings with Von der Leyen, Michel and Metsola, as confirmed by the teams of the high-ranking Community officials.
The Italian government has also detailed that Meloni will travel the following week to the Egyptian city of Sharm el Sheikh to participate in the United Nations Climate Summit (COP27) and later to the G20 in Bali.
Asked about the controversy of meeting with an ultra leader, Von der Leyen’s spokesman wanted to emphasize that the president of the European Commission «obviously works with the authorities of all the Member States» and «does not interfere in the internal political life» of the countries of the bloc.
Von der Leyen, added her spokesperson, hopes to have «good cooperation» with the Italian government in the «challenges of the coming months», which include «difficult» issues, for example energy measures, support for Ukraine or «the proper implementation» of the Italian recovery plan.
Just this week, Meloni suggested in his first speech in the Italian Parliament that he aspired to negotiate with Brussels «adjustments» in the recovery plan that sets the milestones and reforms that Rome must undertake to access the various tranches of EU aid provided for in the European anti-crisis fund created after the pandemic.
The Community Executive then hastened to stress that the Member States must comply with the recovery plans in the terms adopted and that only in very exceptional situations, in which objective data demonstrate the inability to comply with the measures, could Brussels study «case by case» possible modifications.
