Introduction by President Meloni

The outcome of this European Council meeting is mixed, in the sense that we are very satisfied with the work done on enlargement, achieving a goal that many of us thought would be difficult to reach at this European Council meeting, i.e., the opening of negotiations, particularly with Ukraine. I wish to say that I am also very satisfied with the balance struck with the Western Balkans, in relation to which Italy was among the nations playing a leading role for progress to be made, in particular with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and this has been achieved in the Conclusions of the European Council meeting. So, a very important result with regard to enlargement.

We did not, however, manage to find a solution regarding the revision of the multiannual budget, although in my view a solution is within reach; I am not pessimistic about the fact that this can be reached at the next European Council meeting. We are in any case satisfied with the negotiation draft text, which includes all of Italy’s priorities, starting with flexibility for existing funds, particularly on the issue of migration. There was a point in these negotiations when nothing had been provided for migration, and we have now reached almost EUR 10 billion to be spent in particular on the external dimension, so, considering our objectives, this will be a great achievement if we manage to confirm it at the next European Council meeting.

There was a very in-depth discussion on the Middle East, and we preferred to reiterate the Conclusions from the last European Council meeting because, if we had updated those Conclusions in any way, some differences would probably have made the task challenging. In any case, we all agree on the fact that we must continue to condemn the attacks by Hamas of 7 October, reiterate Israel’s right to defend itself in accordance with international law, and work on a long-term ‘two-peoples in two States’ solution. We also reiterated the humanitarian work that Europe can do and that Italy is doing, citing many examples that you are aware of and that I shan’t go into now, but in the end it was preferred not to write a text in the conclusions.

I am instead very happy with the part on migration, in relation to which a whole paragraph proposed by Italy was passed, reiterating the work that is also summarised in the letters sent by Ursula von der Leyen prior to each European Council meeting, but that was not included in the Conclusions agreed by all 27 Member States at the last European Council meetings. Today, this has instead been included in the Conclusions agreed by all 27 Member States, providing for work on the external dimension, stopping illegal immigration, fighting traffickers, a more effective return policy and the whole vision that Italy has helped to become the vision of the entire European Council. 

[Courtesy translation]