{"id":442720,"date":"2026-01-09T17:47:52","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T16:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/01\/09\/leuropa-di-meloni-pragmatismo-confini-chiusi-e-retromarce-verdi\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T18:16:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T17:16:33","slug":"melonis-europe-pragmatism-closed-borders-and-green-backtracking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/01\/09\/melonis-europe-pragmatism-closed-borders-and-green-backtracking\/","title":{"rendered":"Meloni’s Europe: pragmatism, closed borders, and green backtracking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 A Europe with fewer migrants, more combustion engines and a “pragmatic” Green Deal. These are the characteristics that the Union must have, according to Council President Giorgia Meloni.<\/strong> The occasion for outlining the contours of this (new\/old) Europe is the traditional New Year press conference held by the head of government. <\/strong>The EU is rarely mentioned, yet it forms the backdrop to almost every answer on foreign policy, security, and the economy. <\/p>\n

Immigration is a source of great pride<\/h3>\n

\nThe prime minister’s greatest success in Europe is undoubtedly the battle against illegal immigration<\/strong>. “This is the issue on which Italy has made a difference in Europe,” Meloni claimed with satisfaction, aware that she had been one of the key players in the new regulations approved by the EU Council.\n<\/p>\n

“At my first European Council meeting on immigration, there was no mention of this,<\/strong> and the talk was of redistributing illegal migrants, which was impossible to stop. Today, reading the documents produced by the EU on this subject, there is talk of external dimensions, border defence, and more effective rules for repatriation<\/strong>,” Meloni commented. The seal on this new course came in December when more restrictive rules<\/a> on asylum applications and repatriation were approved. <\/strong>Principles introduced at Italy’s request (but not only).<\/p>\n

Backtracking on the Green Deal and electric cars<\/h3>\n

\nEven when referring to the decline of the automotive sector, Meloni takes credit for the Union’s change of pace, declaring herself innocent of past faults but ready to correct the mistakes of her predecessors. Meloni takes credit for the Union’s change of pace, declaring herself innocent of past mistakes<\/strong> but ‘ready to correct’ the errors made by her predecessors.<\/strong> This time, the allusion is to the extension beyond 2035<\/a> for the registration of cars with internal combustion engines<\/strong>. With these priorities in mind, the logical consequence in the environmental field is a “pragmatic and less ideological” green transition. <\/p>\n

\n

\nNouvelles flexibilit\u00e9s pour les constructeurs Introduction d’une pr\u00e9f\u00e9rence europ\u00e9enne Renforcement de la fili\u00e8re batterie<\/span><\/p>\n

Le d\u00e9tail de nos propositions pour la fili\u00e8re automobile, d\u00e9voil\u00e9es le mois dernier \u2192 https:\/\/t.co\/uvdp9zAvYG<\/a>
 pic.twitter.com\/Qr1hmghtAE<\/a> \u2014 Commission europ\u00e9enne (@UEFrance) January 3, 2026<\/a><\/span>  <\/p>\n

The EU Special Envoy to Ukraine<\/span><\/h3>\n

Even at the international level, the keyword is <\/span>pragmatism<\/span>. For the first time since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, Meloni has opened up to the possibility of <\/span>direct dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/span>. The problem, however, remains that of <\/span>having a single voice in Europe<\/span>: “If we decide to talk to only one of the two sides, I fear that the contribution we can make will be limited, but if we make the mistake of <\/span>reopening talks with Russia and going in a disorganised manner<\/span>, we would be doing <\/span>Putin<\/span><\/span> a favour.”<\/span><\/p>\n

For this reason, her proposal is “<\/span>the appointment of an EU special envoy on Ukraine<\/span>“. This is a new and interesting idea, but very difficult to implement with 27 chancelleries that would have to agree on the appointment of a single individual.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

“Trump will not invade Greenland”<\/span><\/h3>\n

Another hot topic is American ambitions on the Danish island of <\/span>Greenland<\/span>. The Prime Minister has rejected them outright this time. “<\/span>I do not believe in the hypothesis that the US will take military action on Greenland,<\/span> which I would <\/span>not agree<\/span> with and which <\/span>would not be in anyone’s interest<\/span>.<\/span>” This line was already taken on Tuesday during the <\/span>meeting of the willing<\/span><\/a>.<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Danish prime minister: “if Donald Trump attacks Greenland, it will be the end of NATO.” pic.twitter.com\/HsWlup5f2c<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Other Europe (@other_europe) 5 January 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The MERCOSUR opportunity<\/h3>\n

\nIn the economic sphere, minimum growth (at 0.5 per cent) and frozen wages<\/strong> have been described as a “non-catastrophic”<\/strong> scenario. However, this overlooks the fact that in the next budget law, it will no longer be possible to balance the books with billions from the NRRP. Help, however, could come from new economic agreements with Latin America (Mercosur)<\/strong>. The idea, which Italy opposed until a few days ago, has now been given the green light, as negotiations with the Commission have resulted in “new guarantees for our farmers<\/strong>,” Meloni confirmed. <\/p>\n

\"Farmers<\/a>
Farmers protesting in Brussels against the free trade agreement with MERCOSUR (credits: Sameer Al-Doumy \/ Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Italian housing plan resembles that of the EU<\/h3>\n

\nThe latest connection between Meloni’s words and the European debate concerns the future Italian housing plan. In the coming weeks, an initiative will be presented with the aim of “implementing a project that can provide 100,000 new homes at controlled prices over the next 10 years<\/strong>,” but no further details have been disclosed.
\nA similar initiative has gained traction in Brussels. In December, at the urging of the socialist family, the Commissioner for Energy and Housing Policy, Dan J\u00f8rgensen,<\/strong> presented the European affordable housing plan.<\/span> <\/a>At the time, the president of the S&D group in the European Parliament, Iratxe Garc\u00eda P\u00e9rez<\/strong>, described the commitment as a “\u20ac300 billion<\/strong> initiative for affordable and decent housing, with at least \u20ac100 billion in subsidies and state aid.” The impression, yet to be confirmed, is therefore that Giorgia Meloni may take credit in the coming weeks for an initiative (for social welfare) that is actually financed mostly with European money. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the press conference at the beginning of the year, the Prime Minister claimed credit for the change of pace in Europe on immigration: “This is the issue on which Italy has made a difference.” For Ukraine, she proposed an EU special envoy who would speak with a single voice for all 27 Member States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7891,"featured_media":431088,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[26064,26823,26205,26632,32850],"class_list":["post-442720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-giorgia-meloni-en","tag-transition-green-en","tag-immigration-en-2","tag-mercosur-en","tag-piano-casa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7891"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":442721,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442720\/revisions\/442721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}