In the first cabinet meeting after the summer break, the Italian government has indicated Minister for European Affairs Raffaele Fitto as European Commissioner: Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced.
“Today I will communicate to President von der Leyen the name” of Raffaele Fitto as European Commissioner “and I ask everyone to give a round of applause and a big good luck to Raffaele, who will have an extremely complex and at the same time exciting task ahead of him. It is a painful choice for me, I think also for him, and for the government, but it is a necessary choice”.
According to reports, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said this in the Council of Ministers. “This is a delicate and very important choice for us and for Italy in the coming years – he added -. Our choice falls on a person who has a great deal of experience and who has been able to govern the delegations that have been entrusted to him in this government with excellent results”https://gazzettadelsud.it/articoli/politica/2024/08/30/meloni-indica-fitto-commissario-europeo-ha-grande-esperienza-litalia-avra-un-ruolo-adeguato-c7609696-5d04-45b2-a0bf-7cf81427dd51/.”I believe it is appropriate to share with all of you, after having already done so for some time with the other leaders of the majority, an extremely important decision – Meloni explained to the ministers announcing the designation of Fitto -. I received the letter from the President of the European Commission von der Leyen asking the Government to designate the proposed Italian candidate for the role of European Commissioner, which “today”, she added, she will communicate to the President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
“Of course we continue to work on the role that we ask to be entrusted to Italy. And, although I see many Italians rooting against a role appropriate to our nation, I have no reason to believe that that role will not be recognized. Not because of sympathy or antipathy towards our government, but more simply because we are Italy, a founding nation, the second largest manufacturer and third largest economy in Europe, the third largest member state by population, with records in many fields. And today, we can also count on a newfound political stability and economic solidity that few others have in the rest of Europe”. Thus Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the Council of Ministers, after announcing the designation of Raffaele Fitto as European Commissioner.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, before the Council of Ministers, called the opposition leaders to communicate her choice to indicate Minister Raffaele Fitto as Italy’s European Commissioner.
“I thank Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the Council of Ministers for the trust they have placed in nominating me to serve as a member of the European Commission. Over the next five years, the Commission led by Ursula Von der Leyen will play a fundamental role in strengthening the European Union, the well-being and security of its citizens, and in helping to resolve major international crises. I am ready to give my contribution to achieve these objectives”: this is what the Minister of European Affairs, Southern Italy, Cohesion Policies and PNRR, Raffaele Fitto, said.
Schlein: “After Fitto, the government should clarify how it will proceed with the PNRR”
“It is a choice that is up to the government, we are waiting to know which portfolio will be assigned to him as a candidate Commissioner to make further evaluations. The Government should clarify immediately, in light of this indication, how it intends to continue the work on crucial dossiers that Fitto currently manages such as the implementation of the PNRR, programming and cohesion funds that cannot suffer further slowdowns.” This was declared by the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein.
Meloni: “Soon in the Council of Ministers changes to the Bossi-Fini, soon the centers in Albania will be operational”
“We must move forward without fear, because we promised that we would leave Italy better than we found it and if this is the goal we must get to the bottom of the problems and solve them with courage. We will change the things that don’t work and do what needs to be done. Only the Italians, at the end of the legislature, will judge us”. This is what Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, reportedly said in her communications to the Council of Ministers, underlining that “we must be proud of the work we have done so far – starting with the major reforms we have put in place – autonomy, justice, prime ministership, whose ability to change things is directly proportional to the opposition that those who want to maintain the status quo are making” https://gazzettadelsud.it/articoli/politica/2024/08/30/meloni-indica-fitto-commissario-europeo-ha-grande-esperienza-litalia-avra-un-ruolo-adeguato-c7609696-5d04-45b2-a0bf-7cf81427dd51/. “It is essential to strengthen and consolidate the economic framework also with the choices we will make in the next economic maneuver. It will be a budget law inspired, like the previous ones, by common sense and seriousness. The season of money thrown out the window and bonuses is over and will not return as long as we are in government.” This is what Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said, as far as we know, in her communications to the Council of Ministers. “All available resources must, in my opinion, continue to be concentrated in supporting companies that hire and create jobs and to strengthen the purchasing power of families, with the usual special attention to those with children,” she added.
“The Government is working to bring to one of the next Councils of Ministers an intervention, both administrative and legislative, to correct those distortions that for fifteen years now – incredibly in the general indifference and of the governments that preceded us – have allowed regular flows of immigrants for work reasons to be circumvented and fraudulently used as a channel for irregular immigration”. This was stated by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, according to reports, in her communications to the Council of Ministers, referring to the interventions already announced in recent months to adapt the Bossi-Fini law. “In the coming weeks, the centers” for migrants “provided for by the memorandum of understanding with Albania will also be fully operational to process asylum requests on Albanian territory, but under Italian and European jurisdiction” Meloni said explainingor that “in these months” “several operational difficulties have been encountered, but we are overcoming them one by one because we believe a lot in this innovative project” https://gazzettadelsud.it/articoli/politica/2024/08/30/meloni-indica-fitto-commissario-europeo-ha-grande-esperienza-litalia-avra-un-ruolo-adeguato-c7609696-5d04-45b2-a0bf-7cf81427dd51/. “And its potential effectiveness – he added – is demonstrated by the mobilization not only of the European left, but of NGOs at an international level who, as you will have read, are mobilizing against the Protocol. Only at the same time, the majority of EU Member States have asked the Commission to take it as a model as an innovative solution. We are aware that all eyes are on us, and for this reason we intend to do everything according to the rules of the art”.
“As long as this government is in place, Italian families will have nothing to fear. If there is anyone who would like to abolish the single allowance, it is certainly not this center-right government (which has actually increased it and corrected some of its critical issues), but some zealous European official who has opened an infringement procedure and has asked Italy to cancel the requirement of residency in Italy for non-worker recipients of the allowance, the requirement of the duration of the employment relationship (currently at least 6 months) and even to recognize the allowance even to those who have children residing abroad”. This is what Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, as far as we know, said in her communications to the Council of Ministers, adding that they are “crazy changes”.