EditMeloni’s selective critique: attacking the EU while relying on its funds
In a speech Italy’s Prime Minister portrayed the EU as a bureaucratic giant stifling competitiveness - but a closer look reveals convenient contradictions and overlooked realities
Roberto Castaldi, editor of FocusEurope.it, analysed the speech on Tuesday by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to the assembly of Confindustria, Italy’s largest and most influential employers’ organisation.
In her speech to the Confindustria assembly, the Italian PM delivered a highly propagandistic address on the European Union, even though local elections had just concluded. She has already begun campaigning for the next national elections. For Meloni, the EU serves a dual role: a convenient scapegoat and target for criticism on one hand, and an ATM to draw resources from on the other.
Meloni described the EU as a “bureaucratic giant.” Yet the Union’s total budget amounts to just 1% of EU GDP – around €192 billion per year – of which only €11 billion covers administrative costs. The EU employs fewer staff than the city of Rome. By comparison, Italy’s national budget represents nearly 50% of its GDP (around €900 billion), with €201 billion spent on public administration alone. Italy spends more on public salaries than the entire EU budget. So who is the real “bureaucratic giant”?
Meloni called for a “change of pace on competitiveness,” complaining that it is impossible for Italian companies to compete globally when they are held back by “infernal bureaucratic mechanisms,” endless administrative burdens, and regulations. She insisted that simplification and debureaucratisation must become the mantra, claiming that the EU’s “Omnibus packages” are not enough and that the “jungle of rules” built up over decades must be cleared — rules supposedly designed mainly to feed the European administrative machine.
Reality check: The EU’s rules were so impractical that Italy rebuilt the collapsed Morandi Bridge in Genoa in record time by suspending Italian norms and applying only European ones. The real burden on Italian businesses often comes from “goldplating” – the Italian practice of adding extra national rules, costs, and controls on top of EU directives. True simplification should start in Rome, not Brussels.
Meloni demanded that politics be put back at the centre of European institutions, arguing that bureaucracy should only implement political decisions, not replace them. This attack is clearly aimed at the European Commission. Yet the Commission has the same democratic legitimacy as the Italian government: it requires the confidence of the European Parliament. Its President, Ursula von der Leyen, was the lead candidate of the largest party in the 2024 European elections (the European People’s Party), just as Meloni was the candidate of Brothers of Italy in Italy’s 2022 national elections. The Commission is proposed by national governments in the European Council and approved by Parliament – following a process very similar to how Italy’s President appoints the Prime Minister.
On the Green Deal, Meloni claimed that “when history knocked, it swept away ideological trappings and we woke up to the real world.” She positioned herself as a pragmatic voice that had been unfairly labelled anti-European. However, countries that accelerated the Green Deal, such as Spain, now have the highest share of renewables and the lowest energy prices in Europe. Italy, which moved more slowly, remains heavily dependent on gas, with higher costs and greater foreign dependence. This so-called “pragmatism” has proven counterproductive. Italy would be more credible if it had invested more of its Recovery and Resilience Facility (PNRR) and RepowerEU funds in renewables instead of seeking flexibility mainly for subsidies that leave it equally vulnerable to future shocks.
Meloni criticised the EU for being “unstoppable in multiplying rules on every aspect of daily life, but suddenly hesitant when it comes to making its voice heard in global affairs,” accusing it of sacrificing competitiveness and strategic vision on the altar of ideological and technocratic approaches. She called for “sensible priorities and speed in decision-making,” noting that in today’s world, reaction time determines whether a country shapes events or merely suffers them.
Yet the EU acts quickly where decisions are taken by qualified majority (as with AI and data regulation, where it led the world). It hesitates mainly in areas requiring unanimity, where a single member state can veto progress. Meloni has repeatedly defended the national veto in Parliament — the very mechanism that causes the paralysis she criticises.
At the end of her speech, filled with classic nationalist talking points, Meloni called for the EU to “do less and do it better,” invoking the principle of subsidiarity. She did not specify which EU competences should be returned to member states. The reason is simple: individual states cannot effectively compete or defend themselves against continental-scale powers like the US, China, Russia, or India. The root of Europe’s weakness lies in fragmented national sovereignty on key issues such as taxation, energy, foreign policy, and defence. Meloni herself implicitly acknowledges this when she supports deeper defence integration, including through structured cooperation if unanimous progress proves impossible.
In a rhetorical flourish, Meloni claimed she criticises Europe to build it, not destroy it – out of love for European civilisation. Yet history shows otherwise. As historian Arnold Toynbee explained, divided civilisations fall. Europeans today resemble the Greek city-states facing Rome or the Italian Renaissance states facing modern powers: they can unite to survive or remain divided and become conquered territories. Those who truly care about Europe’s future should support a stronger, more federal European Union capable of defending its interests and values on the world stage.
Il mio intervento all’Assemblea @Confindustria 2026 pic.twitter.com/sMXC5A7U3l
— Giorgia Meloni (@GiorgiaMeloni) May 26, 2026
Caption: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni delivers a speech to the assembly of Confindustria, Italy’s largest and most influential employers’ organisation- [@claudiocerasa on X]
Updated: May 28, 2026 - 06:05
