Renzi: I illustrated Barroso my plan for revolutionising Italy

The Italian Prime Minister met the President of the European Commission, who tweeted about “very positive talks” adding “Europe will support reforms in Italy.” The PM: “We need to explain Italian families that Europe is not the cause of our problems, it is the possible solution.”

Matteo Renzi does not want to express his reassurances on Italy respecting European parameters, again: “I have been answering the same wPquestions for weeks,” he reproaches the journalists just after the beginning of the metering of Heads of State or Government in Brussles. “I don’t know what it can say to anyone thinking that the meeting between the President of the European Commission and the Italian Prime Minister could be only about percentages and not about the process of reforms,” he added. Yet, he still went on repeating Italy will respect parameters to anyone he met: at the sides of the EPP Summit, during the meeting with Barroso, and at the European Council, where he unexpectedly called the press: Italy “respects all the duties.”

Renzi said he and José Manuel Barroso talked about the project for “revolutionising Italy,” whose coverage “are indisputable and unambiguous.” This was the core of their bilateral meeting, held just befor the beginning of the Council, and President Barroso “appreciated” it, reassured Renzi.

Yet, the government doesn’t have to speak only to Europe: “Our aim,” said Renzi, “is to explain Italian families that Europe is not the root of our problems, that it is the possible solution.” Italy, thus, “is not part of the European institutions’ initiatives as a failing student, it is one of the founding Member States, a country with some of the most important economic performances of the continent, a State which is respecting all its duties,” hence “I really do not understand all the diatribes around it,” said Renzi.

The issue still is holding court, with some statements by the Prime Minister and Barroso just before the bilateral meeting. “Respecting the duties undertaken” at European level is “crucial” for trusting Italy and Europe, said the President of the Commission, a little tired for the pressure coming from Rome to loosen some of the constraints. Take into account that this is the third Italian Prime Minister in a row to be welcomed with open arms, but with no money in their pockets. “Italy has been respecting all its duties. Italy is one of the countries used to respect its duties,” replied Renzi.

At the end of the meeting, yet, Barroso supported the new Italian Prime Minister with a tweet written by himself (and not by his staff as it usually happens): “Very positive talks with Italian Prime Minister @matteorenzi. #Europe will support reforms in #Italy /JMB”. The meeting was “very, very positive,” said Renzi before entering the Council meeting.

During his first official Council, after the extraordinary meeting held last week on Ukraine, Renzi seemed very relaxed and self-confident. He joked a lot with journalists: “We’re being too Italian even here,” he warned journalists with a smile after they gathered impetuously around him. In front of the cameras, he buttoned up his jacket: “This time it is the right one,” he said, with a hint to the ‘button affair’ in Berlin.

Letizia Pascale