ROME, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The European Union's (EU) priorities for the next five years were set out during a meeting between Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and European Council President Antonio Costa held in Rome on Monday.

These were their first talks since Costa, former Portuguese prime minister, was elected to the post. Most analyses point to a rapprochement by both parties after weeks of tensions between Brussels and Rome.

The meeting focused on the EU's future goals "starting with the main crisis scenarios at the international level, as well as the issues of competitiveness and management of migration," Meloni's office said in a statement.

Meloni also expressed appreciation for Costas intention to ensure shared and pragmatic leadership of the European Council.

RECENT TENSIONS

The comment came only weeks after the Italian prime minister had openly criticized the deal on the EU's new top roles drawn up in preparatory talks between the three main groups in Brussels' assembly -- the conservatives, socialists, and liberals -- who remain the majority after European Parliament elections in June.

The right-wing European Conservatives and Reformist group, to which Meloni's party belongs, came third in the European vote, but was excluded from the negotiations.

Meloni argued that, by not taking into consideration the electoral gains made by right-ring forces across the EU's 27 member states, and not involving them in forging the deal, the EU disregarded the dissatisfaction many voters had expressed.

Following the elections, Meloni labeled the EU as a "bureaucratic giant," saying that the Commission had "pretended not to see the context" of the results of the election.

"This tendency towards hyper-bureaucracy has often been compounded by ideological choices, and the combination of the two -- bureaucracy and ideology -- has largely resulted in the distance between citizens and EU institutions today," she added.

Thus, in late June, she voted against the nomination of Antonio Costa, and of Kaja Kallas as EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Then on July 17, her Brothers of Italy party's EU lawmakers voted against the re-election of von der Leyen as the European Commission chief.

DIFFERENT TONE

Setting a different tone in its statement on Monday, however, Meloni's office noted that Costa chose to visit Rome as "the first leg of his tour of European capitals."

Speaking with reporters afterward, Costa described the working meeting as "very good." He told the Ansa news agency that, "It is now important for me to evaluate what are the perspectives and priorities of the different member states; Italy is one of the EU founding countries, and it is very important to know and to take note of Prime Minister Meloni's priorities."

The shift in tone suggested the meeting might represent an attempt to build the pre-conditions for an initial thawing between Rome and Brussels, according to Italy's business daily Il Sole 24 Ore.

A similar analysis came from state-run Rai News 24, which noted that the government's statement mentioned "a shared and pragmatic leadership."

The Italian government sees the meeting as an opportunity to renegotiate its position within the European institutions, with a specific focus on the appointment of the next European commissioners, it believed. Enditem

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