Negotiations over Fitto ongoing say Socialists

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 11 - Iratxe Garcia Perez, the leader of the Socialist S&D group in the European Parliament, said "we are negotiating, we'll see" on Wednesday when asked about whether it had reservations about Italy's nominee to be its member of the new EU executive, European Affairs Minister Raffaele Fitto.
    "We have requests and we want them to be listened to," she added.
    "It's a general question, not a problem of individual issues".
    European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had been expected to unveil her new team for the EU executive on Wednesday, but the presentation has been postponed until September 17 as she reportedly needs more time to solve issues with some nominations, including Fitto's.
    Fitto, a senior figure in Premier Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, is reportedly going to be nominated for the key post of Economy Vice President, which would put him in charge of overseeing the EU's post-pandemic Recovery Fund.
    The appointment would vindicate Meloni's assertion that Italy will have a important post in the new EU executive despite FdI MEPs voting against von der Leyen getting a second term at the helm of the EU executive in July after June's EU elections.
    Meloni was irked that the Conservative ECR group FdI belongs to and which she chairs was left out of the negotiations for the EU top jobs.
    However, the Greens group, which was also left out of those negotiations but still voted in favour of von der Leyen's re-election, has said it is against Fitto getting an executive vice president post.
    There are also reservations in the liberal Renew group and among the Socialists.
    The MEPs for Italy's centre-left Democratic Party (PD), which belongs to the S&D, did not rule out voting for Fitto on Tuesday, saying they would assess him "without prejudice" at his presentation hearing, but wanted to hear "pro-European signals".
    PD leader Elly Schlein said that "we have always supported Italy having a weighty portfolio" while adding that "von der Leyen will have to take into consideration the majority that voted for her in parliament". (ANSA).