Arriving in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, for an informal European Council on Thursday 23 April, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Europe must be bolder in addressing high energy costs and that Italy has come to seek solutions. She said she will ask that state aid used to contain energy price increases not be counted toward Stability Pact limits, similar to how defense spending is treated under the SAFE loans framework. Meloni said she values European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s proposal on energy as a step forward, but deemed it insufficient.

Meloni warned that waiting to act until problems become severe is a mistake, because delayed responses are more costly. She urged greater openness, effectiveness and efficiency in European decision-making, including on the Stability Pact. While the Commission’s proposal allows some flexibility on state aid, she noted that fiscal room differs across member states and argued for a model that exempts these energy-related expenditures from deficit calculations, as is done for defense spending under SAFE.

She emphasized the need to identify which sectors require support, pointing to road transport as an immediate emergency. Disruptions or large cost increases in that sector could push up prices across consumer goods and feed into broader inflationary pressure.

Meloni said keeping inflation under control should be an EU priority and that Italy’s position at the summit is intended to protect European, not only national, interests. She warned that failing to act promptly on these issues risks serious harm.

Budgetary adjustment? “I rule nothing out”

Asked whether Italy might introduce a budgetary deviation to address rising energy costs, Meloni replied that she does not rule anything out. She said nothing is being excluded at this stage and that the priority is to provide responses to the energy crisis-linked, she said, to the war in Iran-while preferring to do so within a more comfortable fiscal framework.