ROMA (ITALPRESS) – “Dear Ursula, Italy will continue to play its part in strengthening European security and defence. It is a responsibility that we feel deeply, especially in the international context that we are living. We will continue to support the need for the European Union to invest more in its strategic security and defence capacity. But today, in the eyes of European citizens, there is another equally concrete and immediate emergency: that of energy”. This is the text of the letter sent by the President of the Council Giorgia Meloni to the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. “The crisis in the Middle East and tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, which are added to the effects of the Russian aggression of Ukraine, are already producing very heavy and often asymmetric effects on energy prices, on costs for families and enterprises, on the competitiveness of our production system and on the purchasing power of citizens – continues Meloni. In Italy and in many European nations the concern of having to face a new economic and social shock after the enormous sacrifices sustained in recent years. That is why I believe that Europe must give a signal of coherence, common sense and closeness to citizens.” “If we consider the defence rightly as a strategic priority to justify the activation of the National Escape Clause, then we must have the political courage to recognize that today energy security is also a European strategic priority – the premier points out. And, in particular, that the extraordinary increase in energy costs that we are under is an exceptional circumstance outside the control of Member States with heavy repercussions on public finances. We cannot justify in the eyes of our citizens that the EU allows financial flexibility for security and defence strictly intact and not to defend families, workers and enterprises from a new energy emergency that risks to hit hard the real economy. Europe’s security is not only measured in military capacity. It is also measured in the possibility for enterprises to continue to produce, for families to support energy costs, for States to guarantee economic and social stability”. “It does not escape anyone that an adequate production capacity in defence is necessarily based on a solid and healthy economy. To support businesses and families to face expensive energy would make our economies stronger and therefore even more able to strengthen their defensive capacity – writes Meloni in the letter to Von der Leyen. For this reason, Italy considers it necessary to temporarily extend the scope of the National Escape Clause already envisaged for the defence costs also to the investments and the extraordinary measures necessary to cope with the current energy crisis, without changing the maximum deviation limits already previewed”. “In the absence of this necessary political coherence, it would be very difficult for the Italian Government to explain to the public a possible use of the SAFE program under the conditions currently envisaged – Meloni concludes. I am sure that the Commission will understand the scope and urgency of this request, which arises from the need to respond concretely to the real priorities of Italian and European citizens at such a delicate time.”.
– Photo IPA Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
