The dossiers on the table in the bilateral between Meloni and Macron

The first day of the European Council, which ended shortly after 9 pm, was also an opportunity to the bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron. Many newspapers today headlines using the word “thaw” and in fact this is the first official tête-à-tête – after the two informal talks in Rome and Sharm el Sheikh – following the clash on the Ocean Viking and after the tensions caused by the meeting which, last February, before the summit of the 27, Macron organized with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky at the Elysée, inviting only Olaf Scholz. Macron and Meloni met around 11pm on one of the upper floors of the hotel friendin the historic center of Brussels, without their respective delegations, which remained waiting at the bar in the hall of the structure where, by pure coincidence, the German chancellery is also meeting with his staff.

The one between the French head of state and the premier is a long conversation, lasting an hour and forty, with la management of migration flows, support for Ukraine, European industrial policy, energy and the reform of the Stability and Growth Pact. In the meeting, which was requested by the French (and herein lies the premier’s satisfaction), the “misunderstandings” were set aside in the name of the “necessary and inevitable closeness” which has always been evident in dozens of strategic dossiers, in particular about defense and aerospace. Indeed, as Italian diplomatic sources explain to Il Messaggero, “aside from the piqued words that ‘sometimes’ separated them, both are aware of the importance of good Italian-French relations. The leaders of Rome and Paris are looking to the Mediterranean and to the need to ‘to secure the southern front of Europe’, as requested by the Prime Minister at the Brussels summit”.

On the plate, adds the Corriere della Sera “there is certainly also a French request, that one marking of nuclear technologies among those compatible with the energy transition which for Paris is essential. Italy can lend a hand. And certainly, in return, Paris can lend a hand to Rome, firstly on the explosive situation in Tunisia, but more generally on the whole migrant dossier”. A dossier that was not on the agenda at the Brussels summit but which Giorgia Meloni she had proposed to impose on the discussion.

In addition to Tunisia there is also a Libyan dossier. The idea should be to establish a sort of peace around the governments of Tripoli and Benghazi, curbing Putin’s role. Coordinated action between the two states can produce real steps towards stabilization. And then, again, there is the issue of reform of the Stability Pact in an “anti-austerity” key and an agreement on the balance between growth and inflation to beEurosummit today (in which Cristine Lagarde will participate), in particular with reference to the growth of interest rates. Paris can help the Meloni government obtain margins of flexibility linked to the growth that Berlin has hitherto blocked.