The differences between the Government of Pedro Sánchez and that of Giorgia Meloni in Italy are obvious, but so are the interests that unite the two countries, the third and fourth economies of the euro zone and the main beneficiaries of the European recovery plan after the pandemic .
The 19th edition of the Italy-Spain Dialogue Forum, which started yesterday in Rome, was the scene of the rapprochement between the two executives a week before the meeting that Sánchez and Meloni will hold on Wednesday, April 5, also at the Italian capital, a first bilateral meeting in the framework of the European tour that the socialist president is doing in view of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU, which will begin on July 1.
The first day of the sessions, an almost annual initiative born in 1999 in which businessmen, politicians and institutions debate the main issues that concern the two countries, and organized by the former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta and the former deputy of CiU Josep Antoni Duran Lleida, was dedicated to two very topical issues: the threat posed by the war in Ukraine and the need to take advantage of European aid to relaunch the digital transition.
The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, went to Rome and confirmed that in the second half of the year Spain will conduct the “first joint exercise” of the new European capacity for rapid deployment, the military arm that the European Union (EU) will activate in the event of a crisis with 5,000 men to defend community interests. “If there is one important thing, it is that we no longer see the EU as an adversary of NATO”, he said, after emphasizing the role that Spain will play in this area during his community presidency.
Robles was accompanied by his Italian counterpart, Guido Crosetto, with whom he held a working meeting in the morning. “We are from different political coalitions, but we are totally in tune with our common goals”, declared the Italian, talking about matters such as the reinforcement of the European presence in Africa. The Secretary of State for Digitization and Artificial Intelligence, Carme Artigas, also participated; the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri; the Italian Minister of European Affairs, Raffaele Fitto; the president of CEOE, Antonio Garamendi; the president of the Barcelona Society of Economic and Social Studies for the Promotion of Work, Josep Sánchez Llibre; the CEO of Abertis, José Aljaro; or the assistant to the director of La Vanguardia, Enric Juliana.