Meloni to Scholz: “Caution on state aid, maintain a level playing field in the EU”

Giorgia Meloni arrived in Berlin this afternoon, after a visit to Stockholm in the morning. And here she met for a long talk Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, with whom the prime minister will meet next week at the European Council. “Cooperation with Germany is essential to advance European solutions on highly complex issues starting with competitiveness”, Meloni said at the press conference, immediately after the bilateral meeting.

Many of the issues that will be addressed in Brussels on 9 and 10 February were therefore at the center of the meeting today: migration policies and the European response to the American investment plan. Precisely on the second point there is a divergence of positions between the two governments: in Brussels, for the moment, German interests prevail to the detriment of Italian ones, so much so that in the draft conclusion of the European Council that Il Foglio was able to view at the top the proposal for a common European debt will not pass following the example of Sure. In this regard, Meloni said that “caution and a level playing field” between the countries of the European Union are needed with regard to state-owned vehicles: “We all need to maintain a level of competitiveness that is the same for everyone”. But he has opened up the possibility of setting up a common fund at European level, fueled by a common debt. “We know that there are different positions but also the issue of timing and some answers must be given immediately. For this we need flexibility on existing funds: we have the Pnrr which certainly can be better directed to some priority areas and there are funds of cohesion”, explained the Prime Minister.

On the other hand, the positions of the two leaders on the management of migrants are closer. “A challenge that we can win together at European level”, Scholz told Meloni during the meeting with the press. The Italian prime minister recalled how “the illegal management of immigration cannot be entrusted to traffickers”. And that “the issue is also and above all a question of safety”.

In the background are the dossiers that more closely concern the two countries, which are strongly interconnected from an industrial point of view. “Italy and Germany are nations linked by a bilateral relationship that extends to almost all sectors of public and private life”, a “partnership” characterized by “a very close economic interconnection, which makes our economies highly complementary and fundamental for the EU economy “, Meloni said in this regard.

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