German, French and Italian leaders hold key talks on future direction of EU

The leaders of Germany, France and Italy will meet today to discuss how to keep the European project together in the second set of talks between the premiers of the eurozone’s three largest economies since Britain’s shock vote to leave the bloc.

Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi hosts German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Francois Hollande on an island off the coast of Naples ahead of September’s EU summit called to discuss reverberations from the Brexit vote.

Officials in Brussels and Berlin fear the June 23 vote could lead to a referendum in the Netherlands — a founding member of the union — on whether to also leave the bloc.