Meloni 'hopes for Fitto backing without hesitations'

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 15 - Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday urged all Italian political parties to take action within their European political groups, speaking about the appointment of Raffaele Fitto as commissioner and vice president in the new European Commission headed by Ursula von der Leyen while addressing the Senate ahead of a European Council scheduled on October 17-18. Meloni, who spoke beside her two deputy premiers, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, is scheduled to address the Lower House in the afternoon. "I hope that all Italian political forces will became active within their European political families so this result can be reached by our nation quickly and without glitches", said Meloni. "There are moments in which national interest must prevail over partisanship: I hope this is one of them, without distinctions and without hesitations", noted the premier. Von der Leyen last month announced that she had proposed six executive vice presidents for the new EU executive, including Italy's Raffaele Fitto, with a portfolio for cohesion and reforms. Fitto, Italy's European affairs minister and a heavyweight in the premier's Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, will manage the post-Covid NRRP funds with Valdis Dombrovskis, the commissioner-designate for the economy. On Tuesday Meloni said that the responsibility to handle the NRRP entrusted to Fitto together with Commissioner Dombrovskis by von der Leyen was a "collaboration on equal terms" which represents "an opportunity for the Italian commissioner to make the reasons of a necessary additional flexibility in investments prevail, an historically Italian position that has found a first partial acceptance in the reform of the Stability Pact".
    "The European Council will stress once again its support to the Ukrainian cause to build a fair and long-lasting peace and help it look at a future of prosperity and well-being.
    "Defending it is in the interest of Italy and Europe", Meloni told the Senate.
    In her address, the premier also spoke about the IDF's attacks on UNIFIL, saying that, "although no victims or significant damage were registered", they could not be considered acceptable and this is "the position Italy has taken with determination at all levels: we demand that the security of our soldiers is guaranteed" both within "UNIFIL and the bilateral mission, which together with the rest of the international community has contributed for years" to the stability of the border between Israel and Lebanon..
    She stressed that the "attitude of Israeli forces is totally unjustified and a clear violation of UN resolution 1701", adding it was necessary to "work for the full implementation of the resolution, strengthening the full capability of UNIFIL and of Lebanese armed forces". (ANSA).