PARIS — Michel Barnier is heading to Italy early next month, the French prime minister said on Friday, on a trip to strengthen Franco-Italian ties and possibly convince Rome to join a bid by Paris to delay and water down a major trade deal between the European Union and much of South America.
“Italy is a very big country that France has often neglected,” Barnier said as he announced the visit at a conference in Paris co-organized by the top French, Italian and German business associations — Medef, Confindustria and the BDI.
The visit could happen on Dec. 5 or 6, according to an official with direct knowledge of the visit who spoke on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
French presidents and prime ministers often go to Germany for their firsts visits abroad to acknowledge the key role the Franco-German engine has played in keeping Europe peaceful and economically bound together since the end of World War II.
The fact that Barnier is headed to Rome may be a sign that France is looking increasingly toward Italy as a partner on European Union issues — especially with Germany facing snap elections early next year that are likely result in a change of government and Chancellor Olaf Scholz leading a push to get the Mercosur deal over the finish line.
France has been working to find allies to oppose the trade deal between the EU and South American countries of the Mercosur bloc, which could be sealed in early December.
Whether it can count on Italy’s support remains to be seen.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani reiterated at the same event in Paris on Thursday that Italy backs the pact, but wanted to make sure that the accord won’t harm Italian farmers. Italian Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida last week had cast doubts over Italy’s longstanding support for the deal when he said he opposed the deal in its current version.
Both Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella have publicly endorsed the deal.
While Barnier visited Brussels earlier this month, his trip to Rome will be his first bilateral visit as premier. He acknowledged that Paris needed to do more to keep the trans-Alpine relationship alive after years of ignoring it after the 2021 signing of the Quirinale Treaty, a bilateral pact covering everything from migration to industrial policy.
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