{"id":457326,"date":"2026-06-18T19:53:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T17:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/06\/18\/tajani-fi-ppeserve-un-inviato-speciale-che-parli-con-mosca-con-una-voce-unica-europea\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T09:58:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T07:58:46","slug":"tajani-fi-epp-a-special-envoy-is-needed-to-talk-to-moscow-for-a-united-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/06\/18\/tajani-fi-epp-a-special-envoy-is-needed-to-talk-to-moscow-for-a-united-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Tajani (FI-EPP): “A special envoy is needed to talk to Moscow for a united Europe”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Adopting a unified stance in dialogue with Russia<\/a>, assessing the possibility of imposing sanctions on Israeli ministers and goods from the West Bank, and ensuring the passage of Italian ships through the Strait of Hormuz. These are the guidelines presented today (18 June) by the Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Minister for Foreign Affairs, <\/span>Antonio Tajani<\/b>, on the sidelines of the pre-summit of the European People\u2019s Party (EPP) \u2013 that is, the meeting of heads of state and key political leaders of the EPP family ahead of the European Council. <\/span>\u201cI believe one thing must be decided: we need a special envoy to speak to Russia with a single European voice,<\/b>\u201d the minister reiterated, adding that it is necessary to reduce \u201cthe number of meetings and express the position of all twenty-seven Member States in relations with the Russian Federation.\u201d According to Tajani, \u201cthe name must be chosen by all Member States\u201d to avoid \u201cformats comprising only three or five countries.\u201d It will therefore be necessary to \u201cspeed up the process of identifying a spokesperson who can make a difference.\u201d When asked whether the President of the European Council could fulfil this role, the minister replied that it is \u201can institutional role outside the EU\u2019s borders.\u201d In other words, \u201cwithin the Union, the highest authority is the President of the European Parliament, while outside, it is the President of the European Council,\u201d he explained. Therefore, it could \u201cbe him, but also other people.\u201d What is important, he stressed, \u201cis that there is a voice expressing the Union\u2019s position at a time when it seems that Russia is unwilling to see reason.\u201d<\/strong> In this regard, the EPP vice-president expressed his satisfaction with the outcome of the G7 summit that ended yesterday in Evian<\/a>,  describing it as \u201cpositive,\u201d adding that \u201crelations between all countries have been mended.\u201d Following the meeting in France, \u201cthe G7 emerges stronger and more united, with an identity recognised even by Russia\u201d, he emphasised, because \u201cthe United States has realised that it is essential to continue putting pressure on Putin, who continues to seek war rather than peace.\u201d<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Regarding the Middle East, on the question of imposing sanctions on goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, \u201cItaly is not opposed in principle to sanctioning goods,<\/strong>\u201d Tajani said, but \u201cwe are awaiting the European Commission\u2019s proposal.\u201d The Foreign Minister clarified, however, that \u201cat present, Rome is not in favour of terminating the trade agreement with Israel,\u201d<\/strong> as \u201cit would be a mistake to isolate the country.\u201d  According to the minister, \u201cit would be a gift to the extremists, and I do not think that is right\u201d because \u201cthere is an election campaign underway in Israel too, and I hope that matters can be smoothed over.\u201d Regarding the hypothetical sanctions against the Israeli Minister of the Interior, <\/span>Itamar Ben Gvir<\/b>, on the other hand “Italy is the main proponent of this request”<\/strong>, due to what happened “during the unlawful arrest of several Italian citizens who were part of the Flotilla and because of the statements made against Italy itself”. In this context, \u201cwe are trying to persuade EU countries to sanction this minister,\u201d he announced.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, according to Tajani, the G7 summit also proved positive in relation to the issues arising from Israel\u2019s war against Iran. The minister believes it is now essential to \u201cconsider alternative routes\u201d to avoid the economic tensions caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Speaking of trade routes, the Deputy Prime Minister took the opportunity to mention that the \u201cItalian merchant ship Grande Torino, owned by the Grimaldi Group, was one of the first ships to pass through after the Strait of Hormuz reopened.\u201d<\/strong> Now, \u201cthe aim is to get two MSC ships through as well,\u201d he concluded. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, the name must be chosen by all Member States: \u201cWe need to find a spokesperson who can make a difference\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":457283,"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":[25707],"tags":[2433,1666,26643,25755,25804,82],"class_list":["post-457326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-antonio-tajani","tag-european-council","tag-party-popular-european-en","tag-news-parliament-en","tag-sanctionsin","tag-russia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457326","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\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":457327,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457326\/revisions\/457327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}