Italy’s Giorgia Meloni tests her mettle as EU-US bridge as she meets Trump in Washington
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni will test her mettle as a bridge between the EU and the US as she meets with President Donald Trump in the White House on Thursday.
Ms Meloni is the first European leader to have face-to-face talks with him since he announced and then partially suspended 20% tariffs on European exports.
She secured the meeting as Italy’s leader, but she also has, in a sense, been “knighted” to represent the EU at a critical juncture in the trade war.
Ms Meloni was in close contact with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen before the trip, and “the outreach is… closely coordinated,” a commission spokeswoman said.
“We know we are in a difficult moment,” Ms Meloni said this week in Rome.
“Most certainly, I am well aware of what I represent, and what I am defending.”
The EU is defending what it calls “the most important commercial relationship in the world”, with annual trade reaching 1.6 trillion euros (£1.3 trillion).
Trade negotiations fall under the authority of the commission, which is pushing for a zero-for-zero tariff deal with Washington.
Trump administration officials, in talks with the EU, have yet to publicly show signs of relenting on the president’s insistence that a baseline 10% tariff be charged on all foreign imports.
Mr Trump paused for 90 days his initial 20% tax on EU products so that negotiations could occur.
The EU has already engaged with Trump administration officials in Washington.
Maros Sefcovic, the European commissioner for trade and economic security, said he met on Monday with commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and US trade representative Jamieson Greer.
Mr Sefcovic said afterward on X, formerly Twitter, that it would “require a significant joint effort on both sides” to get to zero tariffs and work on non-tariff trade barriers.
Ms Meloni’s margins for progress are more in gaining clarity on the Republican president’s goals rather than outright concessions, experts say.
“It is a very delicate mission,” said Fabian Zuleeg, chief economist at the European Policy Centre think tank in Brussels.
“There is the whole trade agenda, and while she’s not officially negotiating, we know that Trump likes to have this kind of informal exchange, which in a sense is a negotiation. So it’s a lot on her plate.”
As the leader of a far-right party, Ms Meloni is ideologically aligned with Mr Trump on issues including curbing migration, promoting traditional values and scepticism toward multilateral institutions.
But stark differences have emerged in Ms Meloni’s unwavering support for Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
The two leaders are expected to discuss the war and Italy’s role in an eventual post-war reconstruction of Ukraine.
Mr Trump is expected to press Ms Meloni to increase Italy’s defence spending, which last year fell well below the 2% of gross domestic product target for countries in the Nato military alliance.
Italy’s spending, at 1.49% of GDP, is among the lowest in Europe.
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