Gozi: “Italy would like to follow Trade in the new EU Commission”

Italy aims at getting the EU Commissioner for Trade after the forthcoming elections. This is what Sandro Gozi, Italian Under-secretary for European Affairs, explained during a meeting with the Italian companies in Brussels, together with the Italian Ambassador for Belgium. “If we consider the main areas of interest, we know that economic posts, given that Italy has the presidency of the ECB, will hardly be assigned to us,” he said. This is why the government is focusing its attention towards other key roles: “We are interested in Trade, where crucial matches were played in the past, on which Italy had suffered.” Yet, this means battling with the UK that, considering the negotiations on the free trade agreement with the US, is fighting to get that place on the chessboard.

“We are also interested in Single Market, Energy, External Action, which are extremely important too,” added Gozi. He also said it will be crucial to get another Vice-Presidency, has happened with Franco Frattini and then with Antonio Tajani, even if “this has still to be decided,” he underlined. Another significant them is the Digital Agenda – one of the priorities of our Presidency.

Broadly speaking, Gozi said “it will be necessary to see how the new President is going to organise the Commission, for instance the idea of creating ‘clusters’ is quite good.