Sánchez lashes out at Meloni for being left out of a meeting of European leaders

BrusselsAt European summits, it's common for some leaders to take the opportunity to meet more informally. In fact, Thursday's European Council meeting at Alden Biesen Castle, far from Brussels, was specifically designed to facilitate this type of encounter. more relaxed between heads of state and government of the European Union. The most important initiative was spearheaded by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who emerged as the bloc's two greatest allies. However, although nineteen of the twenty-seven leaders joined, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez remained outside the initiative. He is the last remaining social democratic leader among the EU's major economies and is increasingly marginalized. He finds himself more alone swimming against the current in European institutions.

The Spanish government has not taken kindly to being left out. Sources within the Spanish government are harshly criticizing Italy for organizing the meeting and accusing it of trying to undermine the basic principles of the European Union with this type of encounter, even though they are quite common at European summits and have been promoted by the Spanish government itself on numerous occasions. Thus, Madrid believes that this meeting has widened the gap between the two sides and, contrary to the objective of such meetings, has failed to find any solutions.

The government led by Sánchez has limited itself to criticizing Meloni's far-right government, with which it often clashes in European institutions, and has avoided attacking German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who also promoted the meeting. The German leader, besides being part of the traditional conservative family, is also one of the main member states that Spain wants to convince to approve the official status of Catalan in the European Union.

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever also encouraged the event, stating that "everyone was invited." "Some countries wanted to attend, and others didn't," he added. The Flemish leader also said that his intention was not to organize a kind of pre-meeting, since more countries had signed up than initially expected, and certainly not to hold any kind of meeting "against any country," including Spain.

The informal meeting, convened by Germany and Italy, addressed the completion of the single market, regulatory simplification, and trade policy reforms, among other topics. Beyond the German-Italian alliance, the heads of state and government of Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, and Switzerland also participated.