A very long night meeting in the bar of a historic hotel in Brussels. The prime minister Giorgia Meloni and French President Emmanuel Macron met again in Brussels in a bilateral meeting on the eve of a crucial European Council on the issues of enlargement to Ukraine and the European budget, with the great issue of the Stability Pact in the background.
The Prime Minister then spoke in the morning met with the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, for an exchange of views on the main topics on the agenda of the European Council – announced Palazzo Chigi – before the start of the work. The meetings that Giorgia Meloni has had in these last hours reflect a “method that confirms what President Meloni himself underlined during his communications in Parliament when he stated that doing foreign policy means talking to everyone”. This is what sources at Palazzo Chigi explain, recalling the meetings that Meloni had with the president of North Macedonia Vjosa Osmani yesterday evening, with Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz during the night and then this morning with Viktor Orban.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also saw Orban. “It’s about talking to each other and that doesn’t include giving reports of the lunches”: with a joke Scholz declined comments on the outcome of the meeting, reiterating Germany’s “support” for the Commission’s proposal on enlargement. “As regards Ukraine, we will actively try to reach a good European understanding,” the chancellor explained.
“Enlargement is not a theoretical question, it is a process based on merit, legally detailed, which has pre-conditions, there are seven for Ukraine and even in the European Commission’s assessment three out of seven have not been achieved, for where there is no reason to negotiate it”, said Viktor Orban arriving at the summit of European leaders. “The money for Ukraine is already in the budget. If we want to give more money and over a longer period of time, it must be done outside the budget.”
Palazzo Chigi sources: “Meloni talks to everyone”
The meetings that Giorgia Meloni has had in these last hours reflect a “method that confirms what President Meloni himself underlined during his communications in Parliament when he stated that doing foreign policy means talking to everyone”. This is what sources at Palazzo Chigi explain, recalling the meetings that Meloni had with the president of North Macedonia Vjosa Osmani yesterday evening, with Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz during the night and then this morning with Viktor Orban.