ROMA (ITALPRESS) – “The strengthening of the Ukrainian negotiating position is achieved above all by keeping it clear that we do not intend to abandon Ukraine to its destiny in the most delicate phase of recent years. But Italy does not intend to send soldiers” to Kiev. Thus the President of the Council, Giorgia Meloni, in the course of communications to the House in view of the European Council. A long speech that played a prominent role in the war in Ukraine and the question of the Russian assets frozen. “Italy has decided on Friday that it does not lack its support for the Regulation that has fixed the immobilization of the Russian goods without yet validating any decision on their use. We have done so, while not sharing the method used, because there is no doubt about the consistent line of support that the government has always maintained towards Ukraine. In approving the regulation” on Russian assets “we wanted to reiterate a principle that we consider fundamental: decisions of this legal, financial and institutional scope, as well as that of the possible use of frozen assets, can only be made at the level of leaders,” he added.
“Italy considers, of course, sacrosanct the principle that Russia should be priority to pay for the reconstruction of the nation that attacked, but this result must be achieved with a solid legal basis. We also intend to ask for clarity regarding the possible risks associated with the proposal for the use of liquidity generated by the immobilization of assets, particularly reputational ones, of retaliation or linked to new, heavy, burdens for national budgets. Our will to help the Ukrainian people has never been, and it will never be in question. But, today as yesterday, we have the duty to seek the most effective solution to preserve the balance between the provision of concrete assistance to Ukraine on the one hand, and the respect of the principles of legality, sustainability and financial stability, and monetary, on the other. We are open to all solutions, and we intend to favour the best that can guarantee this balance. But it is complex decisions that cannot be forced,” he said. According to the premier, the path towards peace “cannot ignore” the close US-EU bond “which are not competitors”.
“Moscow is crashed” in this war, “conquered 1.45% of the Ukrainian territory at the cost of enormous sacrifices, this enormous difficulty is the only thing that can force Moscow to an agreement. It is clearly an extremely complex negotiation, which cannot, however, ignore the will of Russia to contribute to the negotiated path in a fair, credible and constructive manner. Unfortunately, to today, everything seems to tell that this will is not yet matured – he observed -. This is demonstrated by the ongoing bombings on Ukrainian cities and infrastructures, as well as the inert population, and confirms the unreasonable claims that Moscow is sailing to its interlocutors. The main of which concerns the portion of Donbass not conquered by the Russians. Unlike propaganda, the main obstacle to a peace agreement is Russia’s inability to conquer the four Ukrainian regions which unilaterally declared as annexes at the end of 2022, even by entering them into the Russian constitution as an integral part of its territory” and the Russian request that Ukraine withdraws at least from the entire Donbass. “It is clearly this, today, the most difficult I discover to overcome in the negotiation. In any case, on the subject of the territories, every decision must be taken between the parties and no one can impose from outside his will”.
Meloni then reiterated the cord “for the brutal anti-Semitic attack in Sidney” at Bondi Beach beach on the first day of the Hanukkah party. “It is time not to admit more distinguo or reticenze in condemning any form of anti-Semitism. For, for a long time, an unacceptable underestimate of Islamist anti-Semitism and the one connected with the will to cancel the State of Israel”, he added and, precisely speaking of the Middle Eastern question, recalled the peace plan of President Trump that “has had the great merit of ending the conflict in Gaza. A conflict that had caused a number of civilian victims and an unjustifiable humanitarian crisis, which leave no one indifferent to us. But it is a fragile truce and a complex and ambitious path, and I believe that every person of good will, whoever sincerely cares about the future of Israel and Palestine, and stability in such a strategic region, is called to do its part to consolidate the cessation of hostilities, which can last over time and open the way to long-term stabilization of the Strip, until the perspective of the two states is realized. A few days ago – he recalled -, I received here in Rome President Abu Mazen, for the second time in just over a month”.
“The Palestinian President has asked, with conviction, a strong and ambitious Italian commitment, in the steps necessary to fix the peace plan proposed by the United States and undersigned by all the protagonists. And I believe that Italy should not be subtracted from this commitment, which is required by several parties, at such a decisive moment.” In his speech, the premier also touched on the themes most closely related to European policies with a passage on the criticisms Donald Trump addressed to Europe. “Personally, I think it’s useless or, better harmful, to throw rages against an imaginary enemy, because the real enemy to fight is our inability to decide, and the ideology of the decline that the EU has, dramatically, married in recent years.” On the next Multiannual Financial Framework “the Commission’s proposal provides for greater contributions on the one hand, and on the other minor allocations to traditional and fundamental policies such as the Common Agricultural Policy and Cohesion, real pillars of the European Union and its Treaties. I will say it without a turn of words: we will not accept to pay more to get less.”.
Then immigration and the Albania model to which, according to Meloni, “many other European countries look with great interest, will work and I am convinced that it will help us concretely to further reduce irregular flows and to exercise that necessary deterrence within a multidimensional policy of contrast to human trafficking. Peel or not to the left of every order and degree.” Finally, the Mercosur. “We believe that signing the agreement in the coming days, as it has been suggested, is still premature. For us it is necessary to wait for the package of additional measures to protect the agricultural sector to be improved, and – at the same time – to illustrate and discuss it with our farmers – concluded. This does not mean that Italy intends to block or oppose the agreement as a whole but, as we have always said, we intend to approve it only when adequate guarantees of reciprocity for our agricultural sector will be included. And I am very confident that with the beginning of next year, all these conditions can be fulfilled.”.
IL VIDEO
– photos of repertoire IPA Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
