Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday accused the European Union of sliding into irrelevance on the world stage, warning that the bloc must “do less, but do it better” if it wants to remain competitive.
Speaking at the annual Rimini Meeting, a major event in Italian politics linked to a Catholic association, Meloni said the EU “seems increasingly condemned to geopolitical irrelevance, incapable of effectively responding to the competitiveness challenges posed by China and the United States.
“Bureaucracy will not get us out of the storm, politics can,” she said. “Regulations will not make us stronger, ideas can. Ideologies will not liberate our societies, but values — when applied to the reality we live in — can.
“We must know that returning to being protagonists of history and of our own destiny is not easy, it is not painless, and it is not free.”
Meloni argued the bloc should refocus on core principles and national identities. “The real challenge is a Europe that does less, but does it better,” she said. “After all, ‘United in diversity’ is the motto of the European Union, and I believe it is a motto we should all truly draw inspiration from.”
Her remarks echoed those of former European Central Bank President and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who told the same audience last Friday that the EU must learn to defend itself in a world increasingly shaped by war and “great-power” competition.
In the same vein, Meloni also called on the bloc to take greater responsibility for its own defense, warning that the continent can no longer rely on the U.S.
“After decades in which we outsourced European security to the United States — at the cost of an inevitable political dependency — we must be willing to pay the price of our freedom and our independence,” she said. “Only those who are able to defend themselves are truly free in the choices they make.”
Meloni said her political tradition had long raised the issue, even when it was unpopular. “We spoke of the need for a European pillar of NATO, of equal dignity to the American one, at a time when these issues were not fashionable,” she said.
“It makes me smile a little that those who now claim the need to emancipate themselves from the United States are the very same who have always opposed a policy of independence in terms of defense and security.”
Turning to Ukraine, Meloni welcomed recent “openings for a negotiating path” after years in which Russia had demanded Kyiv’s capitulation, crediting U.S. President Donald Trump, “the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people,” and Europe’s unified support.
The Italian leader addressed the conflict in Gaza as well, condemning both Hamas and Israel. She said Rome had supported Israel immediately after the October 7 attacks, but she criticized the scale of its military response.
“We cannot remain silent in front of a nation that has gone beyond the principle of proportionality, even involving Christian communities in the region, and jeopardizing the historic perspective of two peoples, two states,” Meloni said. She also denounced the killing of journalists in Gaza earlier this week, calling it “an unacceptable attack on press freedom.”
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