Prime Minister of Italy Georgia Meloni met today in Rome with my Spanish colleague Pedro Sanchez. At the end of the conversation, the prime ministers of the two countries made brief statements on international politics and bilateral cooperation.

“The Spanish Presidency of the European Union will play a key role in economic governance reform. We hope that the necessary changes to the Stability Pact will be approved by the end of the year,” the Italian Prime Minister stressed.

On the same topic, she stressed that “Europe must also focus on development and not just stability” because “without development there can be no permanent stability.”

“With regard to the Migration and Asylum Pact, progress has been made. It has been recognized that illegal immigration is a European problem that concerns not only countries of first arrival, and that new means are needed to solve it,” added the Spanish Prime Minister. “Solidarity must be added to the sense of responsibility. During the period of the rotating presidency, we will make every possible effort in this direction,” he added.

The head of the Spanish government called for the reform of the European energy market in order to reduce prices for the population and businesses. Finally, he stressed that his country and Italy fully agree on the need to keep European businesses competitive “at a time when China and the US have chosen protectionism.”

Source: RES-IPE