Italian PM optimistic about economy, criticises EU Green Deal

Rome, Sep 19 (IANS) Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said that she is optimistic about the state of the country's economy, which she expected would outperform its European peers.

Speaking to the assembly of Italian industry association Confindustria on Wednesday, she said that a one-per cent economic growth was "within reach" for Italy this year. To facilitate this, she promised to look for ways to "fix" the European Union (EU)'s environmental rulebook, known as the "European Green Deal", arguing that it was a drag on economic growth, Xinhua news agency reported.

Meloni's growth projection is in line with predictions earlier this year by ISTAT, Italy's National Statistics Institute, which in June predicted the economy would grow 1.0 per cent this year and 1.1 per cent in 2025.

But this target appears less likely after ISTAT reported the economy had grown just 0.7 per cent during the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2023.

Meloni also criticized what she called the "ideological approach of the European Green Deal" on environmental standards, which she characterised as "decarbonisation at the price of deindustrialisation".

"It's a debacle," Meloni said. "I have made the commitment to fix these choices. We want to defend Europe's industrial capacity ... (and) we must have the courage to speak up when things don't work."

Meloni has emerged as one of Europe's leading critics of the Green Deal, which seeks to speed up the transition to renewable energy sources, electric vehicles, and other measures with the goal of reducing European net greenhouse gas emissions by 55 per cent by 2030 and to zero by 2050.

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