Don’t be mistaken: the rapprochement between Germany and Italy won’t drive - but will stall - Europe’s independence. With France politically weakened and the Franco-German axis stalled, many watched last weekend’s Rome summit between Merz and Meloni as a potential new motor for Europe. But the agreement they signed and its direction mark a DANGEROUS political turn. Faced with Trump’s tariff threats and geopolitical pressure, Merz and Meloni are doubling down on deregulation in the name of “competitiveness” while going soft on defending European sovereignty. The irony is stark. Merz and Meloni claim to want a “Europe aware of its role in the world” and “strategic autonomy.” Yet their non-paper reads like a corporate wish list: more omnibus packages, fewer rules, looser state aid controls, with almost nothing on the hard stuff: capital markets union, industrial strategy, or how to finance the investments Europe desperately needs. While they invoke Draghi’s report and Letta’s, they cherry-pick only the deregulation bits, ignoring their call for common European investment and strategic state aid. Worse still, on Trump: these are the leaders who pushed von der Leyen into accepting asymmetric tariff deals - and today unprecedentedly and unashamedly push the @Europarl_EN & its President @EP_President to ratify it against the MEPs’ majority - and blocked the anti-coercion instrument when the U.S. threatened Greenland. Each omnibus package, each regulatory rollback, each concession to “national flexibility” chips away at the EU’s authority to protect its market and citizens. In the new geopolitical landscape, this dismantles the tools Europe needs to defend itself, and risks turning EU member states into “ideal vassals” of Trump’s abuses. The @_FriedrichMerz @GiorgiaMeloni motor isn’t driving Europe toward autonomy. It’s steering us toward greater dependency, be it with the US, Russia or China. Do you agree? @DaveKeating @EnricoLetta #EUCO