Following talks in Rome, Czech PM Babiš says Georgia Meloni “most promising leader in Europe”
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš on Wednesday held talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at Chigi Palace in Rome. The Czech head of government, who is seeking allies in Europe on issues such as migration and the Green Deal, later spoke of Ms. Meloni as “the most promising leader in Europe”.
The atmosphere was cordial in Chigi Palace as the Czech and Italian heads of government posed for photographers and after the hour-long meeting Prime Minister Babiš said they were on the same page on a number of pressing European issues.
“The meeting with the Italian prime minister was excellent. I truly see her as the most promising leader in Europe. We basically have the same views on Europe, and we both feel the need to take action, because we are falling behind in competition with the United States and Asia,” Babiš said after the talks.
He added that he and Meloni had agreed to prepare an action plan for cooperation between the two countries for the years 2026 to 2030. “These will be concrete steps proposed by the Czech side,” he said.
The heads of government discussed a range of topics for which the Czech prime minister is seeking allies in the European Union - including European competitiveness, the Green Deal, migration, energy and defence.
Andrej Babiš wants to work together with other European leaders to have Syria designated as a safe country, which could make it easier to implement the return policy to that country.
“The Italian prime minister and the Danish prime minister have the same view as we do - which is that Europeans’ right to security outweighs the rights of a criminal who commits a crime in Europe. Very often, the courts say these people cannot be extradited because it would violate their rights. We do not agree with that; and this is a pan-European problem. So we want to address improving the return policy, for example, by designating Syria a safe country.”
The talks also focused on the need to protect European industry from the impacts of the Green Deal, which the Czech government is pushing to be radically revised. In this connection Mr. Babiš sent a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU prime ministers and presidents, ahead of an EU summit on competitiveness, calling for a pragmatic approach to the green transition.
He criticised the development of prices under the ETS 1 emissions trading system and called for a delay in the launch of ETS 2. Babis claims that these and other measures are destroying Europe’s industry.
“Europe obviously has a big problem with regulation, with various directives. But we have to see the consequences of regulation and how effective given measures are in addressing the problem. For instance, the capacity of coal-fired power plants in China and outside Europe has increased about six fold. And what is actually happening is that they produce goods that pollute the air many times more than we do. And then we import those goods. So Europe has to fix this, and it has to fix it quickly, because otherwise we will have serious problems. If Europe wants to rely only on the military industry, then that is wrong. Because if the other industries collapse, it will not work anyway.”
The Czech prime minister appeared confident that he would find a strong ally in the Italian prime minister in the upcoming European debates on these issues.
His working visit to Rome, during which he also met with Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, was one of the Czech prime minister’s first foreign visits since returning to office in mid-December. Next week, he is expected to visit Bavaria, France and Austria where he will have a similar agenda.
