by Magnus Lund Nueksen
For Meloni, it would be a chance to show voters how much influence she now has in Brussels, and what she is capable of.
Conveniently, it would also be for the 70th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome – establishing the European Economic Community, the foundation for what has since become the EU.
Meloni, indeed, set the agenda on both days of last week’s EU summit in Brussels. On Thursday, she played hardball on energy rules, joined by much of the bloc’s eastern members.
And on Friday, even though diplomats and journalists had hoped for talks to wrap up early Friday afternoon, Meloni had other plans.
Back-to-back with fellow migration hardliner Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, she pushed for tougher language on migration with specific reference to pull factors – the idea that softer migration rules encourage more arrivals.
It was a thinly veiled jab at Pedro Sánchez over his handling of the Ceuta crisis, although the wording ultimately proved too divisive and was dropped.
Meloni has also become something of a reference point for those in Brussels wondering what a Marine Le Pen presidency might look like in France.
Here is a Eurosceptic who, once in office, discovered that the EU could be useful for advancing her own political agenda.
The next step for the Italian prime minister is to bring the whole show home. Literally.
The last formal European Council summit held outside of the Belgian capital was in Greece in 2003, when European leaders signed on a new constitutional treaty as well as enlargement.
Moving it to Rome would require agreement from all 27 countries.
According to officials, António Costa first floated the idea to Bart De Wever, the Belgian prime minister, who did not raise any objections.
It could, in fact, work out well for both. De Wever gets to strengthen his ties to Rome, while Costa, a socialist seeing his mandate run out by June next year, could boost his hopes of an extension.
First publidhed in Rapporteur
By: N. Peter Kramer