Italy is ready to resume its role as a committed member of the European Union under the leadership of the country´s new government, Finance Minister Roberto Gualtieri said.
Gualtieri´s remarks coincided with the start of a meeting of finance ministers of EU member states in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, on Friday.
Italy´s new government, led by Giuseppe Conte, plans to "actively participate in discussions" with Brussels on policy and budgetary issues, contrary to the hard-line approach of the previous populist government in Rome for 14 months until this summer, Bloomberg reported.
Gualtieri told reporters that Italy is in the process of returning to becoming a major player in Europe and "doing its due role as a great founding country."
The Italian prime minister wants to turn a page on months of attack on the EU, especially by former deputy prime minister and interior minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing League, where spending plans and public budget worries have put Italy in the line of punitive measures. By the European Commission.
In a related context, the Italian Finance Minister said in an interview with the newspaper "La Repubblica" Italian that the controversial relationship between Rome and the European Union cost "billions, burned in terms of interest on debt." It also led to "the decline of Italy´s political weight in Brussels."
