"Italy and Germany have never been so aligned for decades". The German Ambassador in Rome speaks

Italy and Germany “have never been so aligned for decades” and between the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and Chancellor Friedrich Merz there is a “harmony” and a “familiarity” that Thomas Bagger, ambassador for five months German in Rome, claims to have never encountered between the two major European industrial powers. The intergovernmental summit of last January 23rd marked a new strengthening of Italian-German cooperation, the first concrete result of which is the extraordinary EU Council of next February 12th, during which Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta will attend a political discussion on the agendas they have developed regarding competitiveness and the single capital market. The unity of purpose between Rome and Berlin had been underlined the day before by Merz in his dense speech at the Davos Forum.

A somewhat unprecedented approach

This approach, in some ways unprecedented, makes the sixty-year-old diplomat say, during the lesson held on 2 February in the great hall of John Cabot University, in the heart of Trastevere, that he feels like “the ambassador at the right time”, that is, a 2026 which, in the title on the brochure, is defined as “un year of opportunity for Germany and Italy in the midst of geopolitical changes”.

Changes among which there is also the cracking of the Franco-German axis, the traditional cornerstone of European construction. Bagger is very frank in admitting that the current difficulty in working with a France and a Poland that he currently sees as “blocked by internal problems” paved the way for the new partnership with Rome.

“Special moment”

“It is a special moment for relations between Germany and Italy”, reiterates Bagger, who, in an interview with Agi, predicts that “thebroad competitiveness agenda will be the main theme of the leaders’ summit on 12 February”. “But it will not be resolved in a one-day meeting or summit”, he underlines, “it is more a way of trying to shape the 2027 agenda in the months and years to come”. There are “several elements”, he explains: “One concerns regulatory policy and simplification. One concerns industrial policy and how to strengthen European innovation in new technologies and new sectors. And the third is very important: how to mobilize the necessary financial power in Europe to best exploit our strength and our innovative capabilities, our creativity, in order to strengthen Europe”.

“I think that on all these fronts, Germany and Italy have an important role to play”, continues the ambassador, “when I talk to colleagues in Berlin, I hear that on most of the industrial policy dossiers being negotiated in Brussels these days the Italian position is actually the one most in line with ours. And it is positive that there is now direct and permanent communication on how we can join forces and, hopefully, convince as many European countries as possible to follow this path”. Industrial policy is linked to energy policy, of which both leaders have suggested a rethink. “I think we have different perspectives, different situations, even when we look at energy policy in Italy and Germany,” Bagger notes, “we shouldn’t limit ourselves to the disagreements we have, for example, on nuclear energy, there is a lot of practical cooperation that we can carry forward.”

Merz’s speech in Davos

It is inevitable to mention Merz’s speech in Davos, who asked for a“Sovereign and independent” Europe. The case of the agreement with Mercosur stopped by the European Parliament and the requests for revision of the principle of unanimity open a very complex debate on the opportunity for institutional changes in the EU architecture. “Chancellor Merz has given several speeches in Davos and, this week, in the Bundestag. In 10 days he will speak at the Munich Security Conference to describe as clearly as possible Europe’s choices, but also the urgency of acting”, replies Bagger, “some of these things will not happen between now and next year. It will take more time”. And also on reforms, he adds, “there is certainly a very serious dialogue between the leadership of Berlin and that of Rome”.

“I don’t know where the debate on European reform will end or what its outcome will be but it is important to start it”, concludes the German ambassador, “I think this is what unites Germany and Italy. We both know that there is no good future for our countries without a strong European Union”. And “the new level of cooperation to which 2026 will bring this historic relationship” will contribute to making it so. A stronger agreement between Rome and Berlin, therefore, “can become one of the drivers of European cooperation in a difficult phase”.

“A rule of diplomacy is that negotiations are successful when interests are aligned because when interests are aligned it is easy to expand cooperation,” Bagger recalled in his opening speech, glossing over a lesson learned in his youth when he was a collaborator of Joschka Fischer, Gerard Schroeder’s Foreign Minister. “When things are fluid it is easy to shape them.” And today in Europe things are fluid.