“Our line on Ukraine is clear. The position of the League doesn’t worry me»- Corriere.it

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Meloni is in Brussels to participate in the European Council. The summit will begin at 11.30 with a working lunch between the 27 heads of state and government, the community leaders and the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres. The Council, which promises to be complicated, will open with a special session in the presence of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Ukraine, competitiveness, single market, economy and energy are the topics on the agenda.

Already scheduled for the premier a bilateral with MorawieckiPolish Prime Minister, and with Macron (“we are in contact”). A meeting has already been organized “with the Greek premier (Kyriakos Mitsotakis), perhaps also extended to other countries, on matters of governance”.

Before the start of work, the prime minister stopped to talk to journalists. Meloni reiterated the government’s position on Ukraine: «The Italian line is very clear. In the current context there is no more effective measure than guaranteeing a balance between the forces on the fieldis theonly way to force a fair negotiationone cannot ignore who is the aggressor and who is being attacked. The position of the League on Ukraine – Meloni then specified – frankly it does not worry me». On Ukraine, the 27 leaders will reaffirm their condemnation of the Russian war of aggression, including the recent missile attacks, and full European support for Kiev.

The news about the war in Ukraine, live

On the other hand, there will be no discussion on the theme dear to Italy, of migrants, on which there will be a “brief report” from the Swedish presidency and the European Commission on the progress in implementing the conclusions of the summit of last 9 February. «The theme (of migrants ed.) has become central – however Meloni argues -, I expect the EU to take steps forward. I can say that I am satisfied with the draft conclusions, which asks the Commission to precede expeditiously”.

With regard to energy, Italy supports the importance of a response with “common tools and objectives”: diversification of sources, fight against speculation and malfunctions of the gas market, reduction of energy demand, acceleration of the development and diffusion of renewablesrapid filling of storage facilities.

The positions taken on the stop the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2035
and on the directive on green houses, however, they have created some friction with Brussels. «The thesis that we continue to support is that, without prejudice to the objectives of the transition that we share, we do not believe that the Union should also deal with establishing which technologies are with which to reach those objectives – said Giorgia Meloni – . Also because there are technologies in which Italy, and also Europe, are at the forefront, e tying ourselves to technologies that are in fact considered avant-garde by nations outside the Union is, in my opinion, a choice that does not favor the competitiveness of our system. It seems to me a common sense thesis and we are confident that it will also pass for what concerns biofuels », she added.

Stability pact

Responding to a question on the Stability Pact (“there are often different visions” at EU level) Giorgia Meloni stated that for Italy «it would be tragic to go back to the previous parameters, the challenge must be governance that is more attentive to growth and not just to stability. There are steps forward on this but a lot of work still needs to be done. The EU should learn from its past mistakes and from the reality we are facing.”. According to Meloni, «today we and all the member countries are important investments have been requested for the ecological transition, for the digital transitionfor strategic supply chains», for this reason «we cannot think that the investments necessary to make our system competitive are not taken into account in governance».

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