Premier Giuseppe Conte said Friday that a bilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on the fringes of the EU summit in Brussels was "fruitful". He said that Rome and Paris had agreed on a "method" to approach the issue of the controversial TAV Turin-Lyon high-speed rail link.
He said that the French and Italian transport ministers would look at the cost-benefit analyses of the project to hold an "open debate" on it. The Italian government has not yet decided whether to press ahead with the TAV.
The 5-Star Movement (M5S) is against it on cost and environmental grounds.
But the other party in Conte's coalition government, the League, wants the project to go ahead.
Macron, however, struck a different tone to Conte about the TAV late on Thursday before the bilateral meeting.
"France has always had the same position," Macron said.
"Now it's an Italo-Italian problem".
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