Export, Tajani: Made in Italy quality overcomes crisis and tariffs

The crisis in the Middle East, with the clash between the US and Iran and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, is having a negative impact in terms of rising energy costs. "Absolutely yes, Italia will be a protagonist in the defence of free maritime movement in the Strait of Hormuz," the head of the Farnesina confided, "even with its minesweepers, but only by participating in international missions once a stable ceasefire has been reached. We will not participate in any war actions'. "We can participate, thanks also to the great know-how of our Navy and the quality of our minesweepers, in de-mining the Strait of Hormuz, but also in guaranteeing freedom of movement with other types of ships," the minister reiterated, "in international missions that can be under the flag of the United Nations, under the flag of the European Union, or international missions of the 'willing' type. I do not believe,' he confided, 'that there can be a NATO mission because it is too involved with Turkey, which would not be willing to intervene in Iran. It would be better either with the United Nations or the European Union or with a coalition of the willing. And this will also help speed up the supply of oil and gas to our countries, and fertilisers, another not insignificant issue that is not talked about enough'. Now, Tajani concluded, 'it is a question of seeing how long the war will last. Could it be a matter of days? We hope so. And this will allow us to reduce the damage'.

Meanwhile, negotiations continue with Brussels to apply the flexibility currently recognised, in the management of public accounts, to defence spending, also to the resources intended to mitigate the impact of rising energy costs on households and businesses. "It seems to me that, despite some rigidities, people are starting to talk about this issue in Brussels, so I am quite optimistic," said the deputy prime minister, speaking of Italy's request to Europe to loosen the constraints of the stability pact for expenditure related to the energy cost emergency. After the no from the Eurogroup, is this still negotiable? 'I think so, I think so, because some signals have come,' he replied. "Some signals came from Dombrovskis himself, some signals also came from Weber. Let's see in what form. Even von der Leyen has said she will respond, that she needs a few days. If it was an outright no, they would not need to think about it."

According to Tajani, solutions are needed 'to help economies that have problems, from the point of view of compliance with the stability pact because, it is like the issue of inflation, when it is an exogenous factor you cannot burden a state with the responsibility of respecting public debt limits. We all want to reduce public debt,' he continued, 'but when there is an intervention to be made to protect businesses and families, in the event of an emergency, we certainly cannot wait for the situation to deteriorate further to intervene. Just as I think the European Central Bank did well not to raise the cost of money at this time: for once I agree with the choices being made. I have always been against raising the cost of money, this time that the decision has been made not to raise it, I think the European Central Bank is to be commended'.