From Tusk to Rubio, flurry of bilaterals for Meloni

On the eve of the face-to-face meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, three people are parading at Palazzo Chigi: the new Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar, the Prime Minister of Libya's national unity government, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Through each of them, Giorgia Meloni disseminates bottled messages: the desire to further diversify gas and oil supplies to counter the damage of the war in Iran and the determination to keep Italia firmly hooked on Europe, while prodding it to action.

It is with Tusk - who shares with Magyar the merit of having brought his country back on a more pro-European line - that the premier stays the longest. And it is only with him that she makes statements at the end of the bilateral. To celebrate the record trade exchange between Italia and Poland, which will reach over 36 billion in 2025, to reiterate the firm support to Ukraine, but above all to emphasise the convergence on some issues very dear to the government. The first is competitiveness. "We are determined," Meloni stressed, "to fight all those internal tariffs that the European Union has imposed on itself, which end up suffocating our companies, slowing down our competitiveness and creating problems for our workers. The premier explicitly mentions the ETS, the European emissions trading system, and 'all those mechanisms that contribute to artificially inflating energy prices between the different member states, especially in a complex phase like the one we are going through'.

Tusk nods, confirming the harmony already evident at the European Council last March. Poland, like Italia, is also calling for a postponement of the updating of the system's benchmarks for the period 2026-2030, proposing to address the issue as part of the overall review of the directive expected in the second half of 2026.

The elective affinities between Rome and Warsaw go further: they involve the negotiations on the EU's 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework and the need to defend Cohesion and the Common Agricultural Policy, but also the fight against irregular immigration and the protection of external borders (here the Polish premier says he 'understands' the Italian need for security guarantees for the Mediterranean).

The two leaders say they are ready to negotiate a 'new treaty of friendship' and it is Meloni who summarises the goals of the alliance: 'We are two great European nations that together can work to restore strength and pragmatism to Europe, a vision that can give answers to the families and businesses of our nations and the entire continent.