United EU able to overcome Russian challenge - Mattarella

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 1 - An ever more united Europe will be able to overcome the challenges facing it including the one posed by Russia in its war on Ukraine, President Sergio Mattarella said in marking the coming into force of the Quirinal Treaty bringing Italy into its closest ever alliance with France on Wednesday.
    "Together with all our partners, in a spirit of genuine European solidarity, we will also be able to overcome the challenges that the Russian aggression against Ukraine has brought to global security and prosperity, by taking the necessary decisions so that the European Union will be able to respond quickly and effectively to the challenges of our times", said Mattarella in a statement on the landmark treaty putting Italo-French ties on a par with Franco-German ones.
    The Quirinal Treaty, he went on, "is animated by a common vision of the future, which will allow France and Italy not only to make the bonds of friendship that unite them even more solid, but to stimulate a further consolidation of the integration process and a strengthening of our common institutions.
    "With the entry into force of the Treaty, France and Italy are even more united to defend and promote the founding values of our societies: peace, freedom, human rights, sustainable economic and social progress, while respecting the environment." (ANSA).