Presidents Mattarella and Steinmeier: "The EU overcomes the differences, stop expensive-energy"

The Arrajolos summit which brings together 14 European heads of state

has begun in

For Italy, the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella is present.

Arrajolos' work allows non-executive European heads of state an informal confrontation with an open agenda.

The leitmotif of the discussions is Europe and its integration challenges.   

 In Valletta Mattarella participates in the works together with the landlord

the German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the Polish Andrzej Duda.

With them the Bulgarian Rumen Radev, the Croatian Zoran Milanovi, the Estonian Alar Karis, the Greek Katerina Sakellaropoulou, the Hungarian Katalin Nova'k, the Irish Michael Higgins, the Latvian Egils Levits, the Portuguese Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the Borut Pahor and, for the first time, Slovak President Zuzana Aputova '.

On the other hand, Austrian presidents Van der Bellen and Finnish Sauli Niinisto were absent.

The President of the Republic

met bilaterally with the President of the Federal Republic of Germany,

on the sidelines of the Arraiolos 2022 Summit in Malta.

"We must mitigate the consequences of the increases in the cost of energy on the life of families and businesses," Mattarella told Steinmeier. 

An invitation to European countries to overcome their differences, supported by the German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and an invitation also on the domestic front to mitigate the effects of high bills on households and businesses.

In recent days, Germany has been criticized, on the one hand, for the 200 billion domestic aid program for families and businesses, and courted, on the other hand, to recreate a leading group of EU countries.

During the bilateral meeting, Mattarella and Steinmeier showed an optimism that smacks of exhortation and said they were convinced that the next EU council will be able to overcome the differences on energy.

A spur expressed by the president, albeit non-executive, of Germany opens some glimmers on the eve of an EU council that promises to be complicated.     

On the double track between

, Mattarella then launched another exhortation: "We must mitigate the consequences of the increases in the cost of energy on the life of families and businesses".

An objective that everyone considers shared but the frictions between countries and political lines on the instruments to be put in place risk nullifying the immediate effectiveness of the declarations of intent.