(ANSAmed) - STRASBOURG - Mario Monti will be making his first
true sortie onto the international stage today in Strasbourg,
where he is due to meet with French President Nicholas Sarkozy
and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Italian prime minister
intends to sit down at the table of the large European players
and provide an Italian contribution to solving the crisis, but
even more to apply pressure so that Europe decides and it does
it soon, since the crisis has taken on dramatic proportions and
an immediate response is necessary. Sources in his inner circle
say that in Strasbourg Monti intends to take on the role of
''mediator'' between Paris and Berlin, both safeguarding the
current statute of the ECB (as requested by Berlin) and
insisting on the advantages that the introduction of eurobonds
would have. The professor intends to do so as the prime minister
of a ''founding country'' which can and must contribute to
solving a crisis which - in his opinion- has taken on ''dramatic
proportions'', and for which a solution is urgently needed.
Moreover, it is not only Greek, Spanish and Italian state bonds
under attack, but even French and German ones have begun to
suffer. It is inevitable that Monti will also be discussing the
situation in Italy. He will have to explain to the ''big''
European players the government's will to do its part, putting
its finances in order and reducing the enormous public debt, as
promised to Europe. But he could also repropose the extremely
sensitive issue hinted at in the Brussels meetings: whether or
not and how budget objectives must be modified due to worsening
economic prospects. It is an extremely slippery issue,
especially for a country under special observation such as
Italy, but it is already on the table.
In any case, Monti will not be able to do anything but repeat
what he has been saying for a long time: that without a common
response the Eurozone will not manage to exit the crisis. For
Angela Merkel and Nicholas Sarkozy, on the other hand, it will
be a chance to reconfirm the credit given ''without any prior
results'' to the new prime minister. But beyond diplomatic and
political support, during the three-way meeting they will have
to discuss how to get out of the crisis. To prevent a boomerang
effect on the markets, diplomatic sources say that no concrete
decisions are expected: a way to prevent weighing a high-level
meeting down with risky expectations, a meeting which instead is
meant to restore reciprocal trust and unity. (ANSAmed).
