Values, culture, growth for EU - PM

(ANSA) - Rome, August 31 - A trilateral meeting hosted by Italy on August 22 with French and German leaders following Britain's shock vote to leave the EU was not merely symbolic, Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said Wednesday.
    The event was based on the "idea that Europe must have a future, not only a past", Renzi wrote on his online newsletter.
    And the construction of a future needs "values, not just bureaucracy", "culture, not just finance" and "growth, not just austerity", the premier also wrote on the eve of Italian-German intergovernmental talks in the central town of Maranello.
    The meeting of the leaders of the eurozone's three largest countries was held on August 22 on the tiny island of Ventotene to lay the groundwork for a wider gathering on the EU's post-Brexit future scheduled in Bratislava on September 16.