Italy entitled to EC VP says Tajani

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 17 - Italy is entitled to get a vice presidency of the new European Commission, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Monday.
    "We are a founding country and we have an important role to play," he said at the pre-summit meeting of the European People's Parry (EPP) to which his centre-right post Berlusconi Forza Italia (DI) party belongs.
    Tajani, who is also deputy premier, said "what counts for Italy is to have a Serie A (first-class) vice president and a commissioner" .
    He said it had been a mistake for Italy not to have requested a vice presidency for the last European Commission, in which ex premier Paolo Gentiloni was named economic affairs commissioner.
    Tajani added that the EPP was "perplexed" about voting in Portugal's Antonio Costa as European Council president, a post for which he is favourite, because he is not "firm enough" on the Ukraine war. (ANSA).