From Giorgia Meloni’s European tour to the European Parliament old biddies to the Chinese balloon saga – this is what the continent has been talking about this week.
The Italian Job
We all know, the art of bartering is an (other) Italian Job. Ahead of the special EU leaders’ summit starting today, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni embarked on a diplomatic tour from Stockholm to Berlin to square their views on migration but also to coordinate a European response to the American Inflation Reduction Act. Will Giorgia succeed? It is not an easy call to make if we consider the Franco-German “subsidies” dream team. Meanwhile, she can only rejoice considering her high popularity rating at home after almost 4 months in office and the unexpected blessing from the international press.
La Pettegola, European Parliament edition
Some of you may know that La Pettegola is a recurrent character in the Italian literature, but we are very confident you were not aware that the same goes for the European Parliament too. After the outbreak of the Qatargate, some officials may have taken a little too seriously the notion of transparency. In what we can consider an excess of zeal, earlier this week senior officials working under EP President Roberta Metsola made a major blunder by sharing the news of the planned Zelenskyy’s visit to Brussels, fueling security concerns. Brussels is (in)famous for its many leaks, with officials from the EU Bubble often sharing sensitive information after two or three beers in Place du Luxembourg on Thursday night. Tipsy vanity over security.
Tales of London
Once upon a time the other side of La Manche was the EU biggest nightmare. Nowadays the music has changed with the UK struggling internally as an unprecedented wave of strikes is giving white hair to the young PM Rishi Sunak. Meanwhile 10 Downing Street has announced a first Rishi-shuffle of Cabinet after creating four new government departments and appointing a former Labour man as a deputy Conservative chair. Many have read this as a way to wave goodbye to Boris Johnson’s Global Britain era, while Truss’ Sunday Telegraphblast, although annoying Sunak, has rather been seen as her personal revenge against The Lettuce. Unleash the Liz.
Dodging Chinese balloons
Most of us was used to have a romantic view of balloons in the sky following our childhood and the Disney masterpiece Up. But after a Chinese supposedly-spy balloon over American skies had to be shot down last Saturday, we may have to reconsider our position. The saga of the Chinese spy balloon has plunged relations between Washington and Beijing into fresh crisis. With relations worsening between the two superpowers, EU leaders seem likely to come under intensifying pressure from the White House to pick sides and join forces against China, while on the other hand the block is struggling in finding a common response to the American IRA that risk to put European businesses under an unprecedented stress test. “Between two litigants the bystander enjoys”, so goes a famous Italian proverb. This is not the case if your name is EU.
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B&K Agency express sincere condolences to the families of the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria and are mobilising to help those affected by the catastrophe.
