At their first intergovernmental summit in seven years on Wednesday in Berlin, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are expected to commit to increased collaboration on energy and defense, according to official sources.
The two leaders and their governments, Scholz of the center-left Social Democrats and Meloni of the rightist Brothers of Italy, are an unusual combination.
Yet, the leaders of the first and third-largest economies in the eurozone have recently united on several topics due to the war that is raging in Ukraine, concerns about illegal immigration, and a rush to find new energy supplies. These include methods to address illegal migration and building a pipeline to transfer hydrogen and gas between the two nations.
Regarding illegal immigration, German policy has become increasingly similar to Italy’s. In response to increasing immigration and local authorities’ complaints that they cannot handle the rise, it has taken a more assertive stand.
For instance, Scholz has stated he will carefully examine Italy’s agreement with Albania to establish two camps for receiving and detaining migrants who arrive by sea. However, the 31-page action plan that Reuters got, which Scholz and Meloni are scheduled to sign on Wednesday, does not give much attention to migration. It just states that the two governments should keep in contact with each other over the issue.
In the plan, Berlin and Rome commit to improving regular communication, such as through meetings between their ministries of defense and foreign policy, and collaborating more closely on essential matters in general. The fact that the agreement is a plan rather than a treaty highlights how Germany and Italy are not as closely aligned as they are with France, the second-largest economy in the eurozone.
An Italian-German business meeting will take place before the summit on Wednesday. In addition, Scholz and Meloni will separately join a G20 summit to wrap up India’s chairmanship of the world’s 20 most powerful countries.
The two premiers are scheduled to have a working dinner after their news conference in the evening. It is scheduled for the evening for the Italian government delegation to depart.
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