When Meloni met Macron for European unity on Trump, Ukraine

In what has been described as an attempt to mend their uneasy relationship, French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Rome on Tuesday and held talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Even as France and Italy are broadly aligned on supporting Ukraine, the approach of leaders of Europe’s third- and fourth-largest economies for key issues, such as the war in Ukraine, US tariffs, and the place of the European Union (EU), has been at odds.

These differences have often led to public bickering where the two leaders have taken swipes at each other. In the interest of the greater, officials said that Macron has reached out to Meloni for the meeting to mend their differences.

How Macron & Meloni stand poles apart

Macron is a centrist head of state who is a suave, liberal internationalist and a champion of the EU.

On the other hand, Meloni is right-wing nationalist who comes from an anti-immigrant, working-class background. To her, Macron, who went on elite schools and worked as an investment banker before entering politics, is the epitome of elites in whose opposition she has built her political career.

While Macron is a champion of strategic autonomy of France and Europe, and, while Meloni has not spewed anti-EU rhetoric since assuming the high office, she has still continued to criticise what she deems overreach into national affairs by the EY.

On the issue of tariffs, while Meloni has preferred to engage directly with US President Donald Trump and has adopted a softer stance in negotiations, Macron has adopted a firmer stance and wants engagement under the aegis of the EU. On Europe, while both the leaders are united in supporting Ukraine and condemning Russia, Macron is open to deploying boots on the ground and Meloni is opposed to such deployment.

Macron seeks a reset with Meloni

The meeting on Monday was the initiative of Macron to mend the relationship for the greater good. Officials told Reuters that Macron sought to show “respect” and “friendship” with his visit — his first since Meloni became the Prime Minister of Italy in 2022.

Separately, officials told RFI that Macron sought the meeting as he considers it his role “to bring Europeans together and he is also keen to work with her”.

In their talks in Rome, Macron and Meloni sought to iron out the wrinkles in the relationship and find common ground at a time when both of their countries —and Europe at large— are facing common challenges from Russia, Trump, and spillover of developments in West Asia.

In a joint statement, Macron and Meloni said that they “intend to strengthen their common commitment to a more sovereign Europe” and “coordinate their positions on transatlantic relations, as well as on the economic and commercial security of the European Union”.

As both France and Italy are concerned about Russia’s increasing presence in eastern Libya and getting a foothold in the Mediterranean after Bashar al-Assad’s ouster, they said in the statement that the “the meeting also provided an opportunity to address other significant security issues for Europe, particularly in the Middle East and Libya”.

The French and Italian leaders also said that the “the meeting highlighted strong convergences on the European agenda for competitiveness and prosperity, to be implemented ambitiously and swiftly” and they agreed “on the necessary conditions for European companies to compete on an equal footing”.

The statement further read, “This also applies to sectors in transition, such as the automotive and steel industries, which require strong European commitment, as well as to more advanced sectors like artificial intelligence, decarbonised renewable energy sources such as nuclear, and space.”

Macron and Meloni also reiterated that “unwavering and unhesitating” support for Ukraine was needed more than ever to arrive to a fair and lasting end to the war and called for “an ambitious change in scale” for European defence capabilities.