Italy's premier praises joint efforts with Germany ahead of informal EU summit on competitiveness

By Giada Zampano

ROME (AA) - Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said on Thursday she hoped that concrete proposals would emerge from the informal EU summit on competitiveness convened in Belgium, praising bilateral efforts by Rome and Berlin in that direction.

Meloni arrived this morning at the Alden Biesen castle for the summit, with the goal of convincing the European partners to share “concrete measures” on three sectors that she considers key: energy, automotive, and simplification.

"There's certainly a German-Italian driving force on these issues. We're strengthening bilateral cooperation with Germany, but it's not something we're doing against anyone else,” Meloni told reporters ahead of the meeting.

On the eve of the 27 EU leaders’ informal retreat, Italy and Germany have hosted a pre-summit meeting to relaunch competitiveness, the single market, and European industry.

The meeting has been interpreted as a political signal of an increasingly close alignment between Rome and Berlin, aimed at overcoming the EU's long-standing inertia on the single market, industry, and regulation.

“(German Chancellor Friedrich) Merz's role is very positive, and I'm grateful because we're doing a good job,” Meloni noted, adding, however, that France also participated in the table on competitiveness.

The Italo-German approach explicitly echoes the call for pragmatism launched by former head of the European Central Bank and former Premier Mario Draghi, who seeks to translate into political action his recommendations - so far largely unimplemented - on Europe’s structural competitiveness challenges.

The informal retreat at the castle of Alden Biesen was convened by European Council President Antonio Costa, who has also invited Mario Draghi and former Italian Premier Enrico Letta to the meeting.