Meloni now trusts in Brussels' yes to the bill decree

The split among the Twenty-Seven on the Ets issue does not make the European Council break through Giorgia Meloni's proposal for a suspension of the CO2 emissions trading mechanism on thermoelectric power. But the leaders have been working on a framework for the short term, i.e. before the review of the system announced by the EU Commission for July, which would make it possible to address the 'specificities' of the individual member states. An outcome that the PM considers satisfactory.

To these temporary and targeted measures to cope with the recent spikes in fossil fuel prices Meloni clings, after the letter with the nine countries (East plus Austria and Greece) sent two days ago. "In the end, after a long discussion," she reported at midnight at the end of the summit, "we managed to get into the Council's conclusions the possibility of creating urgent national measures that manage to mitigate the impact of the various components in the formation of the electricity price, including Ets, which clearly allows us, from Monday, to work with the Commission on the basis of our bill decree. This, for us, was very important'. She added that 'we clearly have to start a negotiation, go into details, but I am confident that we can get a green light from the Commission'. "We are committed to working closely with the Italia government" on the decree, confirmed Commission President Ursula von der Leyen "in accordance with the guidelines that emerged from the Council conclusions".

The line of urgent action to lower energy prices had been advocated by Meloni during yesterday morning's talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever, with whom she leads the working group on competitiveness and with whom she discussed 'possible initiatives to be taken quickly to curb the energy price surge' caused by the war in Iran. The wall of the Nordics and Spain, however, remained intact. It was only partly helped by the openness of French President Emmanuel Macron: 'Flexibility is needed on the Ets, but the structure must be maintained'.

Rome is looking to this flexibility, which after having passed the surprise decree-law on Wednesday with the 25 cents per litre cut in excise duties on fuels on the eve of the referendum vote on the reform of the judiciary on which the Prime Minister is spending a lot of time (tonight she will be back on TV to push for a Yes vote, guest of Enrico Mentana), is aiming to obtain the green light from Brussels on the Bills decree with new interventions in the near future. An outcome that he considers more useful than the elasticity on state aid also evoked by Von der Leyen to "provide immediate relief on electricity prices to energy-intensive sectors", but difficult to use for countries with high debt like Italia and instead convenient for states with greater budget space like Germany. No willingness has yet come, however, on the issue of joint debt, the route chosen at the time of Covid.

More generally, on the crisis in the Middle East, while the ECB and the WTO sound the alarm on the economic effects, the Twenty-Seven are floating around the Italian position: without ever mentioning either the United States or Israel, they note that the conflict threatens regional and global security, they call for de-escalation and the protection of civilians and infrastructure and full respect for international law, condemning Iranian attacks against countries in the area.