MNI EXCLUSIVE: Italy EuCo Role To Be Limited, Negative: Source

By Silvia Marchetti

     ROME (MNI) - Italy's role at the upcoming European Council will be limited,

although the newly-installed Lega-5 Star Movement coalition government will

start its negative, 'counter-reform' push, MNI understands.

     The new government will use the Brussels gathering to start advocating for

an overhaul of all existing rules and treaties to recover lost sovereignty on

key issues. They also aim to give monetary union -- and specifically euro

governance -- a major restyle, Lega sources have told MNI.

     Lega leader Matteo Salvini -- deputy premier and interior minister in the

new government -- has pledged to use an iron fist against migrants and

dismantle, not just change, the Dublin Treaty on incoming refugees. Salvini

views the Dublin Treaty as penalizing Italy, arguing that Europe has been

helpless so far in adopting an efficient immigration policy.

     Salvini has also criticized the European Commission's post-Brexit long-term

budget proposal of curbing both cohesion funds and resources to agriculture.

     --EUCO IMPORTANCE

     Opposition parliamentarians see the risks of Italy's new government not

being fully immersed in the EuCo decision-making process.

     "This EU Council is crucial. Preliminary decisions will be taken on key

issues concerning Europe's future, from the eurozone's challenges and the next

budget, to the whole union's reform package under discussion including defence

and immigration," warned Luigi Marattin,a newly-elected Democrat deputy who was

adviser to former premier Paolo Gentiloni.

     "Italy's to date pro-reform push will disintegrate, squandering all the

achievements we've made so far," he added.

     Marattin stressed that the previous government had done a huge job in

defining a clear reform plan for Europe that included the adoption of a fiscal

backstop, a common unemployment fund, and the banking union completion.

     "There is already, potentially available, our well defined EMU program that

the new government could pick up instead of starting from scratch. But despite

reassurances, its euro-sceptic position remains dark and ambiguous," he said.

"If they really want a euro overhaul, then why not go ahead and push for it

openly within the EU Council?"

     Marattin also noted that the Democrats had succeeded in pushing the idea of

"public good" to be funded and handled at EU level such as immigration, safety

and investments' support into the European Commission's budget proposals.

     --FRYING PAN TO FIRE

     The appointment of Paolo Savona as new European Affairs minister is also

far from a reassurance for Italy's EU partners. Initially vetoed as finance

minister by President Sergio Mattarella over his controversial anti-euro stances

and past support for an "Italexit", Savona's position on how he will interact

with Brussels remains unclear.

     According to Sergio Fabbrini, a director at the School of Government at

Rome's LUISS University, the new populist government is bound to cause havoc in

Europe.

     "This hybrid ruling coalition isn't at all interested in reforming and

reinforcing European governance. Quite the opposite. They aim to weaken it, halt

and unwind the integration process with a return to nationalism and greater

sovereignty," Fabbrini told MNI.

     In his view, Giuseppe Conte, the "unknown" new premier, lacks the necessary

standing and credentials to be a strong interlocutor on the European stage.

     With Italy sidelined, Germany and France would be given plenty of headroom

to drive the monetary union reform process and shape the future Europe as they

most please, added Fabbrini, indicating a stronger, renewed Paris-Berlin axis

would thus ensue to the detriment of the southern periphery.

--MNI London Bureau; tel: +44 203-586-2225; email: les.commons@marketnews.com

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