ROMA (ITALPRESS) – In view of the European Council of 15 and 16 October, the President of the Council Giorgia Meloni, the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever hosted a new meeting in video conferencing, the fourth, of the Heads of State and Government of the informal group on European competitiveness.
According to a note from Palazzo Chigi, together with Italy, Germany and Belgium, the European Commission, Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and Hungary took part in the video conference.
The discussion focused on three themes: energy cost, simplification of European rules and international trade relations.
President Meloni stressed the need for the next European Council to give clear and concrete political indications, in particular to reduce the cost of energy and to protect the competitiveness of the European industry and, in this context, recalled the common contribution drawn up with the Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, with proposals to alleviate the costs associated with the Ets system, to support the most exposed industrial sectors, to limit the impact of CO2 entry into the electricity price. The importance of the European energy safety refining capacity has also been raised.
On the simplification front, the need to eliminate or review unnecessary, disproportionate or counterproductive European obligations has been highlighted, starting from the forthcoming entry into force of the European Methane Regulation which could make it more difficult and expensive to use alternative energy suppliers.
As regards international trade relations, the comparison focused on the need to strengthen Europe’s ability to compete on world markets, ensuring fair competition conditions and better access to foreign markets for European companies.
-Photo IPA Agency-
(ITALPRESS).
