Meloni meets Orban before EU summit on top jobs

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 17 - Premier Giorgia Meloni on Monday had a meeting in Brussels with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, with whom she has good ties, ahead of an informal EU summit Monday night on the top European jobs after this month's European elections.
    Meloni is the president of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party (ECR), which her right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party belongs to.
    FdI maintained its position as Italy's strongest party in the EU elections, winning close to 29% of the vote here.
    Orban's Fidesz is not in a European group after pulling out of the centre-right EPP two years ago, but is expected to join the ECR.
    Orban told reporters after the hour-log meeting with Mleoni at Brussels' Hotel Amigo: "The meeting went well, it always goes well with Italy".
    On the agreement on EU top jobs and in particular on von der Leyen, Orban said: 'There is a dinner this evening, we will know after the dinner, the situation is fluid right now'.
    Meanwhile, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose Civic Platform party is in the EPP, suggested Monday that there was no need to try to convince Meloni to get the ECR to join the EPP-led coalition that is likely to support the next EU executive.
    "It's not my job to convince Meloni, we already have a majority with the EPP, the Liberals and the Socialists and other small groups," Tusk said at the EPP's pre-summit meeting.
    "My feeling is that that is already more than enough". (ANSA).