EP foreign panel asks hearing on Di Maio

(ANSA) - ROME, APR 26 - The European Parliament's foreign affairs committee on Wednesday unanimously approved a request by a righting League MEP to call an EU Council representative to report on Foreign High Commissioner Josep Borrell's choice of former Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio as the EU's special envoy for the Gulf.
    If approved, the hearing may come in the first few weeks of May, sources said.
    Di Maio's nomination was proposed by former Italian technocrat premier Mario Draghi.
    The current government of rightwing Premier Giorgia Meloni has said Di Maio is not their candidate, but his appointment is regarded as highly likely.
    The hearing was requested by League MEP Susanna Ceccardi.
    Avellino-born Di Maio, 36, is a former leader of the populist 5-Star Movement (M5S), which he left to form his own new centrist party, Civic Choice, which flopped at the September 25 general election in Italy. (ANSA).