Good afternoon everyone.

Thank you for being here and apologies for the delay, which was out of respect for the President of the Republic, who was commemorating the Day of Remembrance for the martyrs of the Foibe massacres and the exiles of Istria, Rijeka and Dalmatia. I of course must also begin by remembering those events along our eastern border; among other things, the façade of Palazzo Chigi, seat of the Italian Government, will be lit up with the colours of the Italian tricolour this evening, with the words “I remember” projected onto it, in memory of the exiles. I therefore thought it right to wait for the President of the Republic to finish before beginning this press conference.

I wanted to hold this press conference because, like I said to our ‘fearless’ colleagues who were still up at three o’ clock this morning, I am very happy with the results Italy has achieved at this European Council meeting.

I am extremely satisfied with the very important progress that I believe the European Union and the European Council have made on a number of issues, which were particularly delicate during yesterday’s discussions at the special EUCO meeting.

As you know, three major issues were discussed. There was of course the matter of Ukraine, in relation to which, yesterday, there was the important presence of President Zelensky, who came to address the European Council. I believe the image of compactness we gave yesterday was a very important sign indeed.

With regard to Ukraine, the meeting conclusions confirm the European Council’s full support for the Ukrainian cause and for the sovereignty and freedom of the Ukrainian people. We fully confirmed not only Europe’s compactness in this regard, but also the fact that the European Union intends to remain by Ukraine’s side for as long as necessary and with all the tools necessary.

From this point of view, Italy’s position has always been extremely clear and extremely consistent. As you know, our commitment to supporting Ukraine is a comprehensive commitment that regards financial, humanitarian, civilian and military aid. I spoke with President Zelensky yesterday and we once again confirmed our full support to him. However, beyond individual Member States, the important thing was that the European Council as a whole did this yesterday, which is why it was a very important meeting from this point of view.

The other two major issues we discussed at the special European Council meeting were the economy and the migration issue.

With regard to the economy, the discussion on the competitiveness of our production system, of our companies, of our industries, began at the previous European Council meeting.

This is a very important strategic discussion, which Italy has also championed, as we believe the crises we have been dealing with over recent years require a strategic discussion on the priorities the European Union must set itself. This discussion includes, for example, the issue of supply chains, which is something I have brought up several times with our European Council colleagues. I believe that the conflict in Ukraine, together with the energy crisis and the pandemic before it, have taught us that the European continent must also pose the question of strategic supply chains if it is to regain full sovereignty, because if we do not control strategic supply chains, we are left at the mercy of events. The European Council is now discussing this a lot and I believe it is of particular importance.

In order to address the consequences of certain decisions made by other powers to support their economies in the face of the difficulties also being caused by the international crises (the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act is one such decision), we have begun discussing how we can strengthen the resilience and competitiveness of our enterprises.

The various Member States have come up with various solutions, which are also very geared towards the possibilities that each country has.

As you know, a discussion has begun regarding the issue of relaxing State aid rules, which is something that some nations with greater fiscal space in particular are asking for (with a relaxation of State aid rules, it would be easier for these countries to help their companies). This solution obviously risks having consequences that need to be monitored, in terms of their effect on the resilience of the single market and on equal conditions for other nations. Italy has amply raised this issue, asking for the relaxation of State aid rules to be contained, temporary and limited and, secondly, for there to be a European response to this European problem, because relaxing State aid rules risks being a national solution to a European problem.

This is why we have asked the European Commission to put forward a proposal for a European sovereignty fund, i.e., a European fund dedicated to the European Union’s strategic sovereignty. This point has been included in the European Council meeting conclusions, but we are also aware that such a fund will take time, and we don’t have time. We therefore asked ourselves how we can create “fiscal room for manoeuvre” also for those countries that have less fiscal space, and we managed to have this included in the conclusions of this meeting.

In addition to the sovereignty fund, Italy’s proposal was to have flexibility regarding existing funds. We have funds that have already been allocated (from REPowerEU to NextGenerationEU to cohesion funds) and we have asked to be able to use these resources in full to focus on the priorities we have.  The other significant issue we raised, and managed to have included in the meeting conclusions last night, was the fact of taking into account the decisions made during the future discussion about the governance reform, i.e., the reform of the Stability and Growth Pact (if you like, I can tell you specifically which parts of the final text were from points raised by Italy, and there are many).
It is clear that the issue of national co-financing remains regarding the response for countries with less fiscal space and the possibility to fully use existing funds (because if the national co-financing used to free up these resources affects the deficit-to-GDP ratio, the problem will remain). We therefore asked for these aspects to be taken into consideration as part of the discussion on the Stability and Growth Pact. We did not discuss this yesterday as it wasn’t on the agenda, but this will probably be discussed at the next European Council meetings. We nevertheless managed to have this included: the debate on the reform of the Stability and Growth Pact must take into consideration the decisions that have been made, so that those decisions may be implemented as much as possible.

So, with regard to the matter of State aid rules, with regard to the sovereignty fund, with regard to flexibility, with regard to the governance debate, with regard to the issue of supply chains, I must say that Italy’s position on economic matters is fully included in the conclusions of this special European Council meeting. I think we can be very satisfied with this result.

I believe we should be even more satisfied with the result regarding the issue of immigration. In this regard, yesterday’s meeting established a principle: the approach is to change. The European Council’s approach in these conclusions is very different to what we have seen over the last years. This approach, which the European Council put down in black and white yesterday, starts with a phrase that had never been indicated in a document of this kind before: migration is a European challenge that requires a European response. 

In my view, this changes a lot regarding the EU’s approach to the migration issue, but is not the only result we have achieved. We focused on the need to follow and deal with the protection of external borders: in previous years, discussions only concentrated on the internal dimension of so-called secondary movements; we asked for the conclusions of the European Council meeting to focus on the external dimension, and we have obtained this – so, protection of the European Union’s external borders, taking into account the difference between those borders, and in particular the specific characteristics of maritime borders. You can find all these things in the European Council conclusions.

In the past, we saw attention being paid, for example, to managing migration flows arriving from the East (the famous Balkan route) but we never saw the European institutions pay enough attention, in our view, to the Mediterranean route; we had never managed to have the priority of the Central

Mediterranean route included in European Council and European Commission documents, but this is something we have now already managed to achieve and this has been confirmed and relaunched in the conclusions from this European Council meeting. 

The Commission’s action plan regarding the Central Mediterranean route, resulting from Italy’s position and the case that was debated among ourselves and other nations (the specific case I am referring to, which you followed, was the Ocean Viking ship), is relaunched in the conclusions of this European Council meeting.

There is therefore immigration as a European problem. There is the external dimension: before discussing internal movements and secondary movements, we must first work together on primary movements; so, to fight human trafficking and curb illegal movements, the specific characteristics of the maritime border must be taken into consideration and, in particular, the Central Mediterranean route, and there must be greater cooperation with and resources for the countries of origin and the countries of transit in particular. I wish to mention our work regarding Africa, which is something that Italy above all is carrying out: we want to engage the European Union as a whole regarding this work. Today, Africa is a continent that has many opportunities to offer, also with respect to the difficulties Europe is facing; I am thinking of the energy issue, which I won’t go into now because we have already spoken about it several times. We believe, for example, that, by working together with these nations better and envisaging strengthened cooperation, we can counter illegal migration flows at the same time as human trafficking and manage immigration, allowing people to legally come to Europe via flows defined by Member States. I continue to believe that it is inhumane to place the issue of migration in the hands of human traffickers.

In this regard, there is also the matter of the Cooperation Framework, of relations with those involved with search and rescue operations. As you know, discussing this matter with a view to regulating how these activities are carried out is a relatively new thing. The issue of a Framework is included in at least three different points of the European Council conclusions.

There is also the issue of repatriations: strengthening the European Union’s ability to repatriate those who do not have the right to be in Europe. Another important thing to be included, which has been widely discussed with other Member States, is the fact that the issue of secondary movements cannot be addressed unless we deal with the primary movements, and this was the issue Italy raised.

All of these matters are included in the final document from yesterday’s meeting (again, I can show you the exact parts if you like); I believe there are at least seven/eight Italian proposals that have been included in this special European Council meeting and that we prepared by speaking with our counterparts, not only yesterday but also over the past days: I had a number of telephone conversations with my counterparts, even those whose positions may have seemed far from ours, and in the end we managed to strike a balance. In my view, this document represents a great victory for Italy, showing that if there is the political will to address problems in a pragmatic and serious way, then results can be achieved. 

I would therefore say that I am extremely satisfied with the leading role Italy played during yesterday’s long meeting, and with the leading role it played in the days leading up to this discussion. I must thank our Sherpas and all the people who have worked long and hard on this summary. However, what makes the difference is the political capacity to build relations, to successfully have dialogue with everyone and also the necessary awareness to defend one’s own interests and seek convergence with the interests of others.

This therefore really was an excellent day, which is why I wanted to speak to you about these results.

[Courtesy translation]