In an emergency meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel blasted Italy for pursuing a deal – a vast infrastructure programme – with “systematic rival” Beijing. President Macron told reporters he intervened in the deal between Rome and Beijing in a bid to stop EU member states straying from the bloc to seek their own prosperity. He said he and Mr Conte had “strategic discussions on China”, with the aim of “defining a common strategy to overcome European divisions and affirm European sovereignty”.
And over the weekend European commissioner Gunther Oettinger called for an EU veto on deals made between China and European partners.
But now Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio has responded to the criticism claiming Italy can be “first” in the bloc when it comes to international trade relations.
He said: “It is clear that Italy has arrived first on the silk road and therefore other European countries at this moment have taken a stance on our trade decisions.
“They have taken a critical view and they have the right to this option.
“Someone in the United States said ‘America First’ so I keep repeating ‘Italy First’ in trade relations.
“We don’t want to override our European partners, we firmly remain in the Euro-Atlantic alliance and we remain allies of the United States in NATO.”
Echoing Mr Di Maio’s comments, Italian MEP Ignazio Corrao told Euronews France and Germany do not have to always be those who dictate the trading terms of the bloc with non-EU nations.
He said: “Obviously I agree with what Luigi Di Maio said.
“There are no problems with our allies. We European countries are not the main actors of globalisation, maybe it’s something within the United States and China.
“But this doesn’t mean that Italy can come first to agreements.
“We are, of course, considering all the voices and we always said we are friends of the other European countries and we are friends of the United States.
“But when it comes to big world business, there are already trade relations with China and between all the other European countries and China, there is nothing strange about Italy coming before Germany or France.
“Why do Germany and France always have to decide first on what happens in Europe about trade?”
The Chinese project aims at connecting Europe with Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
On Saturday, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Italian leaders in Rome who were the first in the EU to sign up to the project.