Raffaele Fitto will be Executive Vice-President in charge of Cohesion and Reforms in the European Commission. “He will bring his vast experience to modernise and strengthen investments for cohesion and growth policies,” said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the press conference presenting the portfolios of the new EU commissioners.
‘Italy is a very important country and this must also be reflected in the choice. The EP has 14 vice-presidents, two are from ECR. I drew the consequences for the composition of the Commission’.
Words appreciated by ECR co-president Nicola Procaccini, who commented: ‘We are satisfied with the presentation of VON DER LEYEN but we are waiting to see the details of the names. There are important new additions to the portfolios such as the new Defence Commissioner, for our part we are determined to take a constructive approach’.
President Meloni’s satisfaction
“Congratulations to Raffaele Fitto on his appointment as Executive Vice President of the European Commission with responsibility for Cohesion and Reforms. An important recognition that confirms the renewed central role of our country in the EU. Italy is finally back as a protagonist in Europe’. This is what Prime Minister Giorgia MELONI wrote on social media. “Best of luck Raffaele,’ she adds, ‘we are sure you will carry out your task well in the interests of Europe and Italy.
Now the oppositions’ vote is awaited
Raffaele Fitto, Minister for European Affairs and in charge of the Pnrr, has significant political experience behind him and has earned undoubted appreciation with the work that has led Italy to first place in Europe on the Pnrr, as stated by Meloni herself: ‘Our choice falls on a person who has great experience and who has been able to govern the delegations entrusted to him in this government with excellent results.
Now it remains to be seen how the opposition parties will behave, because if the M5s and Avs have already announced their granitic no in voting for Fitto, the Democratic Party has chosen to stall by letting it be known, through its secretary, that it would wait for the delegations to be made official before deciding.
The hope, of course, is that Raffaele Fitto will be assessed as the candidate of the nation and not of the government, managing to replicate what happened with Paolo Gentiloni in 2019. The latter,
in fact, became Economy Commissioner in Brussels without any opposition from the centre-right parliamentarians who were then in opposition in Rome.
