PM Mitsotakis in Rome on Monday; to meet with Georgia Meloni

Rome.-Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will visit Rome on Monday and will have a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni. The Greece-Italy High Level Cooperation Council meeting will follow.

As government sources said, Greece and Italy are two EU member states with a voice and role at the European Council table for all the major European challenges of the upcoming period, such as competitiveness, EU defence and security, migration, and issues that are expected to be discussed during the meeting between Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Giorgia Meloni.
Moreover, they are two frontline countries on the issue of migration and, as such, they have repeatedly emphasised the European dimension of the issue, the need to protect the EU’s external borders, the need for cooperation with third countries, and the strengthening of returns, as well as the balance between responsibility and solidarity. The same sources said that the agenda of Mitsotakis and Meloni is expected to include other key issues, such as EU security and defence, bilateral cooperation in the defence sector, and the EU’s cooperation with third countries on security and defence. Greece’s position is that this should be based on common principles and values and serve the EU’s strategic autonomy, meaning it should not create new dependencies.

These same sources said that Greece and Italy are pillars of stability in the Eastern Mediterranean and the wider region, and, due to their shared geographical and geopolitical reality, they face common challenges-from the Eastern Mediterranean to Libya and Syria-challenges that are expected to be on the agenda of the meeting between the Prime Minister and his Italian counterpart. Government sources emphasised that within the framework of the High-Level Cooperation Council, the agenda is broad, and there are many prospects for cooperation, which is why a series of agreements are expected to emerge in many areas of common interest.”

Mitsotakis will be accompanied by Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis, Defence Minister Nikos Dendias, Citizen Protection Minister Michalis Chrisohoidis, Development Minister Takis Theodorikakos. Rural Development Minister Kostas Tsiaras, Digital Governance Minister Dimitris Papastergiou, Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Yiannis Kefalogiannis as well as Alternate Transport Minister Konstantinos Kyranakis and deputy Environment and Energy Minister Nikos Tsafos. In particular, special emphasis is expected to be placed on cooperation in trade and investment, energy, and especially the prospect of strengthening the electrical interconnection between Greece and Italy,  in connectivity, as Greece and Italy can serve as bridges between Europe and North Africa, as well as in transportation.

The last High Level Cooperation Council between the two countries was held in 2017 in Corfu, while Meloni visited Athens and met with Kyriakos Mitsotakis in August 2023.”