Meloni to the Senate: energy weighs more than anything else on competitiveness

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni briefed the Senate on October 14 ahead of the European Council of October 15 and 16. In her address she indicated the cost of energy as the main critical issue for the competitiveness of Italian businesses, calling for a coordinated and rapid European response. This is the same matter that, in the same hours, is the subject of a separate negotiation between the European Commission and the Italian government on the price of electricity linked to gas: two different tracks, the same topic, the same day.

Meloni also referred to the framework of the ongoing war and to the figure of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, describing as risky the agreement reached between the United States and Russia on Russian diesel fuel. The Prime Minister did not provide, in the remarks reported by news agencies, additional details on the terms of the disputed agreement, limiting herself to describing it as a risk in the context of the ongoing conflict.

The address comes on the eve of the summit of European Union leaders, scheduled in Brussels for October 15 and 16, which will address — according to the official statement of the Council of the European Union — the topics of competitiveness, energy prices, macroeconomic imbalances and the upcoming multiannual budget, in addition to support for Ukraine, European security and defense, migration and the situation in the Middle East. Energy, therefore, is not only the topic chosen by Meloni for her address to the Houses of Parliament: it is also one of the points already included in the agenda that leaders will discuss over the next two days.

The connection between the two tracks — the national one of the Senate address and the European one of the negotiation on energy bills, the subject of another analysis in this edition — shows how the issue of the cost of energy is simultaneously crossing several institutional venues at the same moment: from the Italian Parliament to the technical table with Brussels, up to the agenda of the summit of heads of state and government.

The summit of European leaders will be held on October 15 and 16 in Brussels, with energy among the points already included in the official agenda of the Council of the European Union.