'No red lines on Fitto' say EU Socialist sources

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 12 - Negotiations on European Affairs Minister Raffaele Fitto as Italy's nominee to be its member of the next EU executive are ongoing and there are no "red lines but priorities", well-informed sources in the Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament told reporters on Thursday.
    "We don't understand why a government that has clearly said it wasn't supporting Ursula von der Leyen could have a role like ours or that of members" of the EPP and Liberal groups, the sources noted.
    "Von der Leyen is president thanks to pro-EU forces", they added, and "it's not understandable to have an executive vice president from ECR", the conservative group of which Fitto's party is a member.
    "But we will be responsible.
    "Fitto will have to prove to Parliament if he is pro-EU and will need to be prepared", they added.
    Fitto, a senior figure in Premier Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, has been reported as the likely recipient of 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 an 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. (ANSA).