Giorgia Meloni He asks for guarantees to the EU for the defense and reiterates the no to the sending of European troops in Ukraine.
The Premier, in a short press point on the sidelines of the works of the extraordinary European Council, summarizes the position of Rome on the theme of armaments, however rejecting the use of cohesion funds and asking for the extension of article 5 of NATO also to Ukraine. The article provides that an armed attack against a Member State is considered a direct attack against all parties, each committing to assist those who are attached – making use, if necessary, to the use of the armed force. In practice, the essential protection offered by the Atlantic alliance to its Member States – from a Russian point of view, equivalent to adhesion.
In this picture Meloni relaunches Italy’s commitment For a US-EU summiteven if at the moment there is nothing concrete. Finally he replies to Vladimir Putin On the parallelism between Macron and Napoleon: “At this moment it is not necessary to answer, they seem to me manifestations towards their audience”.
Meloni to the extraordinary European Council (reuters)
“There are risks on the debt,” says Meloni: “We are thinking of guarantee tools on private investments, on the invest eu model”.
Then he reiterates the line already expressed at the informal summit of London: there is no European defense without a full involvement of NATO. A position far from that of Emmanuel Macron in favor of a European atomic umbrella. Rome proposes that all the funds provided are intended for eligible expenses for the calculation in the NATO scope, so as to respond also to the American requests for the strengthening of defense expenses.
The Italian request is that the Commission establishes an objective, homogeneous and transparent reporting mechanism of this type of expense. Meloni is convinced that the European plan, to be more acceptable by public opinion, should be linked to positive values such as investments for cybersicacy, for infrastructures, for research and development. In this logic he considers not suitable the word “rearmament”.
On the financial front, Italy welcomes the German proposal of an organic revision of the stability pact which, in the judgment of Rome, should not stop at defense subjects, but also understand other European public goods starting from competitiveness.
The discussion in Italy
Meanwhile, the Rearm Europe plan continues to shake the majority widening the furrow that divides the League by Forza Italia. The sparks between Giancarlo Giorgetti and Antonio Tajani They could not have pleased Premier Giorgia Meloni, committed to finding a mediation space to close Europe to the USA, mainly protecting the role of NATO from the Benefests of Paris. Antonio Tajani He reiterated that for Rome “it is absolutely impossible to think of guaranteeing the safety of Ukraine and Europe without a solid transatlantic relationship and without NATO”.
On the debt front, to avoid problems of sustainability, Meloni proposed to the other leaders to discuss a European guarantee for investments in the defense sector, on the model of the Invest Eu, ‘heir’ of the old Juncker plan. It was the idea behind the European Fund for strategic investments, that is, to use resources limited by the EU budget to offer guarantees to the European investment bank. In this way, the latter could also approve the most risky projects, which it would normally refused, thus encouraging other investors to participate.
Will be Giancarlo Giorgetti to present a proposal in this sense to the next Ecofin.
European rearmament does not divide only the center -right but shakes the waters also within the Democratic Party: Elly Schlein has returned to criticize the project of Ursula von der leyen: “We will work to change it. We are in favor of a common defense and contrary to the rearmament of the 27 countries”, he reiterated, in fact recruiting with the Five Stars. Of opposite opinion, however, the vice -president of the European Parliament, Pina Picierno According to which Rearm Europe represents a “historical turning point”. Also for the S&D group leader, IRATXE PEREZ GARCIA That of Von der Leyen is “a good plan”.
