Premier Matteo Renzi had
a heated exchange with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during
the European summit in Brussels in which he said "you cannot
tell us that you are donating blood to Europe, dear Angela,"
sources said on Friday.
The exchange at the start of the second day of the summit
when Renzi confronted Merkel about Germany's opposition to rapid
completion of the process towards a banking union in the
eurozone, the sources said.
Merkel is said to have admitted that there have too many
delays over this issue due to a series of emergencies that the
union has had to face
Renzi's stance was backed by several other leaders,
including French President Francois Hollande, Portuguese Prime
Minister António Costa and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
Earlier on Friday Merkel's spokesperson denied speculation
that there is a rift between Italy and Berlin over migrants
after Renzi said he was against the EU being led solely by
Germany.
"I don't see any conflict between the German government
and the Italian one," Merkel's spokesperson Christiane Wirtz
said.
"There are intense discussions about refugees at the
European level".
The Union needs to change course, abandon austerity and
enact policies that will stoke economic growth and create jobs,
Renzi told the meeting of European Socialists ahead of the EU
summit on Thursday.
Sources present at the meeting said Renzi referred to the
conduct of German companies willing to do business with Russia
while European sanctions are in force.
Renzi's government has also warned the European system to
tackle the asylum seeker crisis risks breaking down if the EU
does not keep its pledge to relocate thousands of refugees in
front-line countries like Italy and Greece, whose outlying
islands are the first landfall for people taking to the
Mediterranean in a bid to flee war, persecution, and Islamist
terrorists in Africa and the Middle East.
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