European Union: Merz wants to involve Meloni Enger in Ukraine diplomacy

Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) has spoken out for a closer integration of Italy in the European efforts to end the war in Ukraine. After meeting the right -wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome in the evening, Merz said: “We agreed that Italy had to play a role here.”

The Chancellor did not say exactly what this will mean when he was visited in Italy. He announced that he will have talks with other European partners in the next few days. “We cannot be divided apart in the European Union. There are also not members of the first or second class.”

Irritations in Italy because of Kiev trip without Meloni

In Italy, Irritations had caused irritation that Meloni recently was not there when visiting state and government heads from France, Great Britain, Poland and Germany in Kiev. According to media reports, this is said to have happened at the urging of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Meloni said – without name – that now it may be the moment to “give up personal sensitivities that threaten to undermine the important and fundamental unity of the West”. Meloni’s independent predecessor Mario Draghi was still there on an earlier Kiev trip.

“Indispensable strategic partner”

Merz described Italy, which has been ruled by a coalition of three rights and conservative parties since 2022, as a “indispensable strategic partner”. The Chancellor denied a report that Italy was not mentioned accordingly in the coalition agreement of the new federal government at the urge of the SPD. “The news about it is all wrong.” In the round of the main negotiators, there was “never any disputed discussion about the role of Italy in the European Union”.

Government consultations next year

Merz and Meloni agreed that there will be German-Italian government consultations again next year. These meetings with the heads of government and ministers of both countries had been resumed last year after a seven -year break.

Merz and Meloni agreed that the cooperation in the EU must be expanded in the containment of the irregular migration. “We will no longer be on the brakes when it comes to solving the problems in the European Union,” said the new Chancellor.

Asylum procedure in third countries “still an option”

Merz can also also imagine asylum procedures in states outside the EU. With a view to the interim stopping plans of Italy by the judiciary there, the CDU chairman said that he knew the decisions of the courts. “But of course this can still be an option.”

The right -wing coalition in Rome wants to process asylum procedures for migrants in Albania taken up in the Mediterranean, but this was prevented several times by the judiciary. The European Court of Justice is currently examining whether such a handling of migrants with European law is compatible. The specially built camps in the non-EU country of Albania have been largely empty for months. So far, the model has never worked.

Vice -Chancellor Klingbeil also comes to the Pope Mass

Merz is for the inauguration of the new Pope Leo XIV in Rome, which takes place on Sunday on St. Peter’s Square. Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil (SPD), Bundestag President Julia Klöckner (CDU) and Federal Council President Anke Rehlinger (SPD) will also take part in this.