Tajani: 'No to a Europe based on two or three countries'

“There must not be a Europe traction of two or three countries, all the reforms must be carried out, we must reform the Stability Pact and arrive at the conclusion of the banking union”. This was stated by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaking at the Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio. “And achieve fiscal harmonization – he added -, if we want to count in the world we must have a weight that cannot be only that of the high representative or the ministers. In order for Europe to count, it must have economic strength, not just commercial strength, it must have the ability to count at an industrial level”. “We want to continue working intensely with China” but we must “also carry out an analysis on exports: the Silk Road, if we go to analyze it, has not brought the results we expected. Italy’s exports to China in 2022 amounted to 16.5 billion euros, those of France to 23 and those of Germany to 107”. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said so in his speech at the Ambrosetti forum. “Parliament – he added – will have to make an assessment and then decide whether or not to renew our participation in this project”. With China “we want to have a solid relationship knowing full well that they are a partner but also a competitor, a systemic rival”, explained Tajani. “If we want to compete” with Beijing, he added, “we need a European foreign policy and rules that guarantee the competitiveness of our industrial realities”. On the defense front, “Europe has to take a few steps forward. We have to be more ambitious but the numbers we have don’t allow us to. We have also seen on the Ukrainian question that we cannot always run after the United States”. This was stated by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaking at the Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio. The United States “who are our interlocutor, but even if we want to count more in NATO, we need a Europe that knows how to count more, not in words but also in deeds”. Italy could speed up the decision to sell the share in Monte Paschi. This was explained by Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani in response to a question from Bloomberg TV on the sidelines of the Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio. “Probably yes,” Tajani replied. When asked when it will be decided, he added “in a short time”. Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA