Meloni skips EU-Balkan summit. Mystery over disagreements with Macron, Merz and Starmer

The official explanation coming from Palazzo Chigi for Giorgia Meloni's failure to take off for Montenegro, where she was expected along with thirty other leaders at the extraordinary EU-Balkans summit, is a "devastating delay" on the schedule. The premier, according to her staff's version, was stuck in Reggio Calabria by the protracted celebrations for the 212th anniversary of the Carabinieri Corps and took part in the presentation of a postage stamp in the prefecture. Result? Impossible to reach Tivat before the conclusions of the summit, scheduled for 3.30 p.m.

But the forfeit, which Meloni personally informed the Montenegrin president Jakov Milatović and the president of the European Council António Costa of, expressing his regrets, is causing debate. The relevance of the meeting, dedicated to reviewing progress in the process of accession to the Union (the candidates closest to the goal are Montenegro, in 2028, and Albania, by 2030) but also Ukraine, is all too evident. Issues that are anything but separate: both because of the hinge role between East and West played by the six Balkan countries and because of the open discussion on Kiev's entry into the EU, which sees France and Germany pushing to accelerate and Italia recalling the precedence that the Western Balkans must take. On the day after the invitation by Zelensky to Putin for a face-to-face meeting, the summit represented a precious moment of confrontation between the European heads of state and government, before the Council of 18-19 June in Brussels.

But the recent activism of the E3 format at leader level - Macron, Merz and Starmer - urged by Zelensky himself to work on a plan to deal with Moscow had certainly not gone unnoticed in Rome: the four will meet in London tomorrow. Moves greeted with great scepticism by Meloni: nobody at Palazzo Chigi was surprised by Putin's no to Zelensky that materialised yesterday. From the government they also remind us that the E3 are the ones chairing the coalition of the Willing (convened in Paris on 14-15 July) collecting for now only holes in the water and that without US involvement and the Tsar's willingness to sit at the table it is difficult to imagine a breakthrough.

Another dossier, which held sway in the huddles at the informal dinner in Tivat on Thursday evening, helped fuel the mystery of Meloni's absence: the appointment of the new High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina after the successor to the German Christian Schmidt. The US, with the backing of Japan and Turkey, support the Italian ambassador Antonio Zanardi Landi and make no secret of their irritation at 'European indecision'. The E3 raise the wall: Germany and the UK cheer for France's special envoy for the Balkans, René Troccaz.

For Rome it is all dietrology, but the oppositions are back to accusing the premier of isolating Italia. "Sole absentee, Meloni says she was late with the plane," punishes Matteo Renzi (Iv). "She is angry because Merz, Starmer and Macron are travelling alone. They do not consider her and she takes offence". Harsh Giuseppe Conte (M5S): 'Unfortunately with Meloni we only see the "centrality" of Italia on postcards. But was Salvini driving the plane?". From the PD Filippo Sensi attacks: 'I didn't understand why Italia's line is "I had judo". Bad, very bad. Out of everything'. Ironic Angelo Bonelli (Avs): 'Mamma ho perso l'aereo or, rather, Europa ho perso l'aereo. It is not only the well-known Christmas film, but now seems to have become the foreign policy agenda of President Meloni'. And even Riccardo Magi, +Europa, does not spare criticism: "Meloni by now chooses the Aventine and defects from summits, putting forward grotesque excuses".