Italy’s Meloni scores diplomatic win as ‘bridge builder’ by bringing US, EU to same table

Meloni said she was ‘very proud’ to host US Vice-President J.D. Vance and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to ‘start a dialogue’

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Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (centre) with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (left) and US Vice-President J.D. Vance on Sunday. Photo: Chigi Palace Press Office / EPA-EFE

Published: 3:27am, 19 May 2025Updated: 9:04am, 19 May 2025

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hosted a key trilateral meeting in Rome on Sunday, bringing US Vice-President J.D. Vance and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to the same table, hoping to usher in what she said could be a “new beginning”.

It was a diplomatic score for Meloni, who has been touted as a potential bridge-builder with the Trump administration, but so far had been unable to provide decisive breakthroughs amid increasingly strained relations with her main European partners.

“I am very proud to host two of the leaders of the EU and the US to start a dialogue,” Meloni told the press ahead of the trilateral meeting, while sitting at a round table with her counterparts.

Italy’s premier recalled that she had proposed such an initiative a month earlier in the US capital when she met US President Donald Trump at the White House.

“I hope that today can be a first meeting and a new beginning,” Meloni said, noting that “for trade matters” the competence belonged to the EU Commission, but Rome’s role was linked to “the need and the desire to promote dialogue”.

Vance stressed that Meloni had become “a good friend”, acknowledging her will to act as “a bridge builder between Europe and the United States”, a role that both he and Trump supported.

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