EU must have 'clear course' if it wants a role - Giorgetti

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 27 - Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said Saturday that the European Union must have a clear vision about where it wants to go, if it intends to play a major role in the international arena.
    "The world is changing rapidly, geopolitical and geo-economic balances of power are being reset and the European Union must set a clear course for itself, if it wants to play both an economic and political role," Giorgetti told ANSA on the sidelines of the G20 Finance Ministerial Meeting in Rio de Janeiro.
    He said that the formation of a new European Commission after EU elections "is the equivalent to having a body - it takes about nine months.
    "The only European institution that travels along without any problems is the central bank," he added.
    "All the rest struggles to find precise governance".
    He said that the government was aiming for Italy's member of the new Commission to have a major economic brief.
    "The (negotiation) process has started, with the request for names (from the Commission)," he said.
    "It is accepted that Italy, as a great EU founding country, is entitled to an important position.
    "And it is known that we ask for economic portfolios.
    "Reconfirming the (economic affairs) portfolio that is now (Paolo) Gentiloni's, seems unlikely to me".
    MEPs from Giorgetti's League party and from Premier Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) both voted against European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's re-election and both parties belong to groups that are not in the ruling alliance in the European Parliament. (ANSA).