PM Visits Sweden & Germany, Talks Migration & Green Deal Industrial Plan

Italian PM Giorgia Meloni engages on a whistlestop tour of northern Europe today, visiting Stockholm for talks with Swedish PM Ulf Kristersson and then onto Berlin to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

• Meloni's talks with Scholz are set to focus on the Green Deal Industrial Plan seeking to counter the US Inflation Reduction Act. Politico outlines the divisions: "While Germany largely backs the Berlaymont’s plan, Italy fears the overhaul of state aid rules will favor countries with the highest spending capacity — France and Germany above all — and fragment the EU single market. In another “non-paper” [...] Rome called on the Commission to support EU businesses by “re-prioritizing’’ funds under the National Recovery and Resilience Plans and cohesion policies."
• Meloni's talks with Kristersson are set to focus on the politically charged issue of migration. Kristersson sits as a key figure in the EU in H123 as Sweden holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. Meloni and Kristersson both lead centre-right/right leaning gov'ts and are seeking to encourage agreements at the EU level on both strengthening external frontiers and encouraging mandatory redistribution of migrants among member states.