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05 September 2019 "I thank the President of the Council Giuseppe Conte for the position he has given. It is a responsibility that honors me. I will try with all my strength and with my work to contribute to a new positive season for Italy and for Europe ". This is what the former premier Paolo Gentiloni said in a statement, indicated by the government as the new Italian commissioner for the future European executive of the president-elect Ursula Von Der Leyen.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte informed the Council of Ministers, as we learn, that he had announced the name of Paolo Gentiloni as Italian member of the new commission yesterday to EU Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen.

The European commissioner appointed by Italy, Paolo Gentiloni, could obtain the portfolio for Economic Affairs in the Commission of Ursula von der Leyen, according to what is learned from several sources in Rome and Brussels. The former president of the Council could take the place of the Frenchman Pierre Moscovici, although as an alternative von der Leyen would not have excluded the possibility of attributing to Italy the portfolio of Commerce or that of Competition. In discussions with other governments and candidate commissioners, von der Leyen would have kept his hands free and as far as we know would be ready to meet Rome's demands. "Italy is an important country. It has priority," said a source close to the future president of the Commission.

"Von der Leyen will take Gentiloni's preferences into account for the portfolio," another EU source said. According to a third source, the Italian government explicitly asked for economic affairs. The economic affairs chair would be in line with the priority contained in the yellow-red government's program to promote "the changes necessary to overcome the excessive rigidity of European constraints" on public accounts. Italy should also be given the vice-presidency of the Commission, although the intentions of the German president the two vice presidents actually operational and of real political weight will be those that will be attributed to the Dutch socialist Frans Timmermans and the Danish liberal Margrethe Vestager.

Gentiloni will meet von der Leyen tomorrow morning. The official composition of the Commission and the distribution of the portfolios will be announced by the same president next Tuesday.