Fabio Massimo Castaldo told Express.co.uk he hoped an “intelligent point of view” would prevail after the European Commission’s President Jean-Claude Juncker said Britain would “regret” its vote to leave the EU.
He said jousting from “both sides” would not be helpful in the long term as it could risk relations with a “fundamental partner”.
“I think that a hard Brexit and a not regulated and agreed Brexit will be a punishment for everybody,” he said. “[It] will be a punishment for us because we will lose the special and strong, important relationship with a fundamental partner.
“It will be a punishment for both our business, companies, it will be a punishment for the stability of the continent because it doesn’t matter if [the] UK will continue to be a part of the EU or not, EU are a crucial partner for security, for foreign affairs, for economy, for commerce – we need this cooperation.
“And the closing this divorce with total bad attitude will just not ensure a good cooperation for the future, so this is a need and I think that this play of strength from both sides is not going to help anybody.”
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Mr Castaldo called for “positivity” and warned those seeking to administer a “punishment” to the UK after 17.4million people voted Leave.
He said: “I want to be positive and I also think that an intelligent point of view will prevail on the revanchism from some of the members of the Commission would like to put on the frontline just to show that the EU has the strength to punish here.
“The punishment to the UK would be a punishment to ourselves.”
The comments after Mr Juncker launched a scathing attack on Brexit after his State of the Union speech on Wednesday.
He said the referendum result marked a “very sad and tragic moment” for the EU and the UK would “regret” the decision.
Mr Juncker said: “March 29 2019 – that will be the day when the United Kingdom will leave the EU.
“This will be a very sad and tragic moment in our history we will always regret this and I think that you will regret it as well soon if I might say.”