Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Tuesday criticized Eurosceptics and said Italy was vital to Europe's future in a speech to lawmakers, as parliament prepared a vote of confidence on his new government.
"Europe is not our enemy," the 39-year-old centre-left leader, the European Union's youngest prime minister, said just ahead of a vote that is expected to confirm his cabinet after it was sworn in over the weekend.
Renzi, who ousted his predecessor Enrico Letta this month in a power grab within the Democratic Party that both men belong to, said Italy's presidency of the EU in the second half of 2014 was "a gigantic opportunity".
Letta was in the chamber for the vote, along with Pier Luigi Bersani -- a former Democratic Party leader who was widely blamed for an inconclusive result in last year's general election and was returning to parliament after suffering a brain haemorrhage last month.
"Europe today does not give hope because we have allowed the European debate to become about commas and percentages," said Renzi, who was mayor of Florence and has no experience in national government or parliament.
"We want a Europe to which Italy does not turn just to follow a line but gives a fundamental contribution, because without Italy there is no Europe," he said.
But Renzi told parliament that his first foreign trip as premier would be to Tunisia next week "and not Brussels or Berlin" because "we hope that the Mediterranean will return to centre stage".
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Tuesday criticized Eurosceptics and said Italy was vital to Europe’s future in a speech to lawmakers, as parliament prepared a vote of confidence on his new government.
“Europe is not our enemy,” the 39-year-old centre-left leader, the European Union’s youngest prime minister, said just ahead of a vote that is expected to confirm his cabinet after it was sworn in over the weekend.
Renzi, who ousted his predecessor Enrico Letta this month in a power grab within the Democratic Party that both men belong to, said Italy’s presidency of the EU in the second half of 2014 was “a gigantic opportunity”.
Letta was in the chamber for the vote, along with Pier Luigi Bersani — a former Democratic Party leader who was widely blamed for an inconclusive result in last year’s general election and was returning to parliament after suffering a brain haemorrhage last month.
“Europe today does not give hope because we have allowed the European debate to become about commas and percentages,” said Renzi, who was mayor of Florence and has no experience in national government or parliament.
“We want a Europe to which Italy does not turn just to follow a line but gives a fundamental contribution, because without Italy there is no Europe,” he said.
But Renzi told parliament that his first foreign trip as premier would be to Tunisia next week “and not Brussels or Berlin” because “we hope that the Mediterranean will return to centre stage”.
