Case green, Mes, wine labels: the 3 dossiers that divide Italy and the EU

In a particularly delicate phase that sees the Meloni government engaged in negotiations with Brussels to make changes to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, three European dossiers impose themselves on the executive's agenda And they are all politically prickly

The first is the proposal for a European directive "Epbd" with the new rules on the energy efficiency of buildings: the swedish rotating presidency of the European Union undertakes to approve it green within six months, but Italy is ready to give battle and block legislation that would effectively impose the obligation to renovate two out of three buildings to make them more energy efficient The second dossier is actually "an old classic": Italy's ratification of the ESM (only its and Croatia's are missing)

A clear message has arrived from Brussels in the last few hours: the reform of the European Stability Mechanism must be approved as it is, there will then be time to reflect on its future A message that arrived the day after the meeting at Palazzo Chigi between the prime minister Giorgia Meloni and the top management of the Mes, in which the premier hoped for corrective measures to make it an instrument capable of responding to the needs of the various economies

Finally, the third dossier: wine The Meloni government intervened against the Irish law which aims to introduce health warnings on the labels of wine, beer and spirits on the basis of what happened for cigarettes

This solution, attacks the executive, violates the principle of the free movement of goods with heavy repercussions on the internal market and distorting effects on intra-community trade As regards the first dossier, Fratelli d'Italia has targeted the proposal for a European directive “Epbd”

«The house is sacred and cannot be touched - underlined the group leader of the Brothers of Italy in the Chamber Tommaso Foti - Brothers of Italy warns against the European Union's attempt to foist on Italy, with the directive on energy efficiency, a disguised asset that goes to harm the rights of the owners»

Foti announced that the group had "presented a resolution in Parliament to ask that the government intervene to prevent the approval of a law that would harm millions of Italian property owners" The package is part of the "Fit for 55" environmental policy which aims to reduce CO2 by 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 data

From 2030 onwards, new private buildings must begin to "get into compliance" with the objectives environmental issues under the New Green Deal: which in practice means reducing harmful emissions for which they are responsible for 40 percent Concretely, it means that "buildings must consume little energy, be powered as far as possible by renewable sources, and must not emit carbon emissions from fossil fuels on site", explained Brussels, illustrating the proposed directive

Sources close to the dossier reported that the vote in the Industry commission, Research and Energy (Itre) of the European Parliament on the new EU directive for the energy efficiency of buildings has been postponed to 9 February The MEPs were supposed to express themselves on January 24, but the appointment was postponed to allow for the disposal of the more than 1,500 amendments presented to the European Commission's proposal

During the press conference with the president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, Swedish premier Ulf Kristersson explained that «our priority is to make Europe greener There are several legislative files which are now being negotiated in the trialogue and our aim is to reach an agreement during the presidency

Among these, the directive on renewable energy and the directive on energy efficiency» As for the second dossier, however, confirming its weight is the fact that, in order to push (and convince) Italy to ratify the reform of the European Stability Mechanism (MES), its top management (the new director general of the Mechanism, the Luxembourgian Pierre Gramegna and his arm right wing, the general secretary Nicola Giammarioli) flew directly to Rome, for a face-to-face meeting with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni

But beyond the formal ratification, on which Parliament will express itself, the prime minister is interested in thinking about the substance: it is necessary to "verify possible corrective measures", together with the other states, to make the Mes "an instrument effectively capable of responding to the needs of the various economies » In short, after the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the new economic difficulties that followed, the instrument needs to be rethought to adapt it to the new situation

On Monday 16 January, the issue could once again become highly topical: a meeting of the Eurogroup is scheduled, which will be attended by Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti The Mes will be on the table

And already, in view of the confrontation, a European official, with respect to the hypothesis of correction to the European Stability Mechanism, has clarified: «I don't think this discussion can begin before the ratification of the previous one is completed I understand that the new Italian government will now start the ratification process and we are optimistic that this will lead to two positive results in a timely manner

Finally, the wine chapter After the silent assent of the European Union - in fact a green light - to the Irish draft law on health alerts on wine labels, the Government intervened with a letter to the EU Commissioner for the internal market, Therry Breton

Signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani, and by the head of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Francesco Lollobrigida, the letter requests Breton's intervention «to protect the correct functioning of the internal market, in line with the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice which has firmly held that all the measures of a member state capable of directly or indirectly impeding present and potential trade within the union have an effect equivalent to quantitative restrictions and are therefore prohibited"