Premier Matteo Renzi on
Friday said he was "not satisfied" by the first EU summit since
Brexit and had declined to share a podium with German Chancellor
Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande since he
did not "share their conclusions" in Bratislava.
Saying the summit had voiced the usual nostrums, Renzi
stressed that there had been no step forwards on migration, one
of the two key topics on the agenda along with growth in a
post-Brexit world.
Renzi said that he was "not satisfied with the conclusions
on growth and immigration" and therefore could not share the
press conference held by Merkel and Hollande.
He said "this is not a polemical fact".
There had been minimal progress but the EU is still "far"
from meeting the challenges it must address after Brexit, Renzi
said.
The EU's austerity policy clearly "hasn't worked", Renzi
said, stressing the need for new approaches to try and stoke
growth across the bloc.
Migrant solutions identified at a Malta summit earlier this
year "have remained a dead letter" and "we want to see facts on
migrants," Renzi said.
He said "we are doing our bit (on migrants) and we are
ready to do so alone if necessary".
The summit "was not a waste of time, but describing today's
document on migrants as a step forward requires an imagination"
worthy of "word jugglers", Renzi said.
"The usual things were said again," he said.
"Clear choices" must now be made in the run-up to a "key"
EU summit in Rome in March "if we want to be able to give
responses to meet the challenges that have come with Brexit,"
Renzi said.
Renzi said Italy is working to build consensus in the
EU and not on a blocking minority.
The premier said Rome wanted to promote an idea of Europe
that "invests in growth, not austerity", citing an earlier
meeting on the Italian island of Ventotene with Merkel and
Hollande to chart a post-Brexit course.
Renzi had another dig at Germany's economic policy, saying
that "just as there are countries which must respect the deficit
rules, in the same way other rules must be respected, such as
the one on the trade surplus.
"And there are certain countries that don't respect it, the
main one is Germany".
In other points, Renzi said that the EU cannot "prevent me
from intervening in school construction".
Merkel and Hollande's press conference was a more sedate
affair.
Merkel said the summit had "agreed on the agenda and the
working plan" going forward to address issues like migration,
where "the aim is to stop irregular immigration".
Flanked by Hollande, she said the "spirit of Bratislava is
cooperation".
Hollande stressed that "security above all means the
protection of our frontiers".
The final statement from the summit, the Bratislava
Statement, said that "although one country has decided to leave
it, the European Union remains indispensable".
It said "the EU is not perfect but it is the best
instrument" to face new challenges.
The EU said "we need to improve communications between us,
member States, with the European institutions, but still more
with the citizens" and "focus" on their expectations "with
courage to address the simplistic solutions of extremist and
populist forces".
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