(Finance) – Taking stock of Italy-France relations and more generally on the future of Europe. This is the objective that one year after the Treaty of the Quirinale the Italy-France conference organized by Aspen at Palazzo Farnese, in Rome. First of all, European sovereignty, the construction of a strategic autonomy for the EU and the contribution of Rome and Paris in this direction are at the center of the debate. Another theme concerned the geopolitical challenges and how they are faced by the two countries: the Eastern front of Europe and the war in Ukraine, the future of relations with China and the new challenges in the Mediterranean area. Particular attention was given to the energy transition and diversification, to the topic of the end of dependence on Russia and the new mix of sources.
The Aspen forum “Italy and France one year after the Quirinale Treaty – The challenges of sovereignty and geopolitical challenges” was chaired by Giulio Tremontipresident of the Foreign Commission of the Chamber of Deputies and president of Aspen Institute Italia and by Jean-Luc Allavena. Among others, the Minister of Foreign Affairs attended Antonio Tajanithe Minister of Economy Giancarlo Giorgettithe French Minister for European Affairs Laurence Boone, Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Eni and the president of ISPI Giampiero Massolo.
“Aspen Institute is committed to creating the conditions aimed at improving the relationship between Italy and France and their two governments – he declared At the oatmeal at the press conference. The idea of this meeting was to create a particular relationship between Aspen France and Italy to help the relationship between the two countries. Aspen institute is a place where we can think of having a relationship between all sectors to make Descalzi actions”.
“It is possible that European defense will develop from the war, it is difficult to say how long it will take, but this is Europe’s progress – he declared Tremonti –. The Treaty of the Quirinal adds to the relationship between Germany and France that between Italy and France. Europe is made from crises, so we will be very much on the side of a Europe that is getting stronger by joining Italy’s voice to the debate”.
“The Italian-French relationship is symbolized by a gap, sometimes wide and sometimes narrow, and it opens and closes. The Quirinale Treaty is a way to prevent it from opening too much, but we must guard against the trap of complementarity – declared the President of ISPI Giampiero Massolo –. Complementarity sometimes implies that we operate within a common geopolitical context, that we have overlapping interests, that we insist on the same markets. The confrontation with reality plastically puts us in front of this apparent contradiction, of two complementary countries that risk diverging. But the thrust of events leads us to a homogeneity of points of view such as the situation in Ukraine”.
“Europe is strong if it decides in mechanisms where vetoes are avoided and I think that after the experience of decisions in the field of health care and vaccines, we will slowly reach the majority and overcome unanimity in the EU – declared the president of General Society Lorenzo Bini Smaghi -. There are high expectations about Europe’s decisions, but often it doesn’t decide because the transfer of sovereignty from the national level to the European one does not take place in full, because if the right of veto is maintained it is a fictitious transfer. No one has doubts about the ECB’s decisions, while when the European Council meets, it is not certain that a decision will be reached. There are many issues on which Europe is expected to decide in the coming months: energy matters to the response to the American initiative Inflation reduction act, industrial policy”. As regards US policy, “if we adapt the same thing in Europe – continued Bini Smaghi – we risk creating a distortion within the single market because the American system provides for tax incentives. In Europe, these incentives can only be adopted by nation states because we don’t have a European budget, and nation states have a different fiscal capacity: Italy, which has a high debt, has less fiscal space than Germany. If we give the green light to tax incentives, we risk creating a distortion. This is the great theme that will be discussed at European level. The other concerns the governance of the stability pact, whether leaving the old system and entering the new one is not a system only for Italy and high-debt countries, while for the others it is a green light for everyone”.
L’CEO of Eni in one of the panels he gave a speech on the recent operations carried out to diversify energy sources with respect to Russia, with a South and African axis we are aiming for. Descalzi he explained how unlike in Russia the countries where Italy is strengthening its presence are countries where Eni has its own assets and investments such as Algeria and Libya. Among the economic topics are also the problems associated with a constant rise in prices and the possible scenario of stagflation.