In response to a question from APE-MPE, on whether there will be new meetings of the leaders of the countries of the European South, the Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi underlined:
“Yes, I confirm what my colleagues told you. I hope these meetings continue, because they are useful. It is something that we also discussed in the meeting I had with its prime ministers Spain, Portugal, and Greece “via video conference- a week ago, here in Rome”.
At the same time, during his interview with the Foreign Correspondents Association Eternal CityThe Italian Prime Minister referred to the war in Ukraine and all its extensions.
“In my conversation with Putin yesterday, I told him I wanted to talk about peace and added that it must be shown that there is a desire for peace,” he said. Italian Prime Minister. “Sanctions pay off and peace can only be achieved if Ukraine continues to defend itself. “I expressed the readiness of Italy to contribute to the whole peace process, which was accepted,” he added.
Draghi also said that “both Ukraine and Russia want Italy to be one of the guarantors of the agreement that is hoped to be reached.”
As for energy, the head of the Rome government stressed that “existing contracts signed with Russia for energy supply will continue to be paid in euros and dollars” and that “as I understood from what Putin said, the change in rubles will be an internal decision of the Russian Federation “.
“The events we are living in bring back to the fore the importance of a ‘political union’, and a single European defense is the most important step in that direction,” said Mario Draghi. “With a single European defense, we will all be allies, forever,” he said.
At the same time, he reiterated the importance of the Compass Strategy, and that “the decision-making system at the national level must be overcome and we must understand who, how and for what purpose spends money in this area.”
“Southern European countries have realized that they can be turned into important gas hubs, and in the future hydrogen, with the aim of extending the energy reserves of the southern shores of the Mediterranean to northern Europe.”
The Italian Prime Minister stressed that “these are particularly important investments” and that the plans under consideration concern “the Italy-Spain gas pipeline, but also EastMed”. “It takes time, but it is not something immediate,” he added.
He stressed that “he does not know the answer to whether Turkey is included in EastMed”, that “the Commission is continuing the relevant technical study”, and that “what happened significantly changes the conclusions of the technical study”.
At the same time, the Italian Prime Minister stressed that “at the last European Summit, Italy, Greece, Belgium and other countries pushed significantly to reach a ceiling on the price of gas” and assessed that “there is no reason to justify such a high price. natural gas”.
“Russia can not sell its gas to any customer other than Europe. But there are some who say: “and if from Moscow, stop the supplies?”. Through dialogue, we must overcome these hesitations. “In order to reduce Russia’s financial support, we need to reduce the selling price of gas.”
Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news
