(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 17 - Premier Giorgia Meloni is defending Italy "tooth and nail" in the EU, Relations with Parliament Minister Luca Ciriani said Wednesday amid intense negotiations over the new European Commission ahead of Thursday's vote in the EU Parliament on whether EC President Ursula von der Leven should get a second term in charge of the EU executive. It is uncertain what the MEPs from Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) and the Conservative ECR group it belongs to will do when it comes to the vote.
    The premier was furious that the ECR group she chairs was left out of the negotiations for the EU top jobs.
    But there is speculation Meloni may get her MEPs to vote for von der Leyen and give 'external' support to the new EU executive if she gets policy concessions and Italy is given a Commissioner with an influential post.
    Von der Leven had a meeting with ECR representatives on Wednesday at which a "structural collaboration" between the group and the incoming executive was ruled out.
    The Commission chief and the Italian premier are expected to talk on the telephone before the vote.
    Meloni and the ECR are reportedly looking for the new Commission to adopt a tougher stance on migrants and for changes to the Green Deal, with a more gradual approach to the ecological transition.
    "I am not able to exclude anything," Ciriani told Skytg24 in relation to Thursday's vote.
    "I know Meloni's determination and ability very well: she will not give any free votes, the role of Italy and ECR will be defended tooth and nail.
    "We are the only stable government that came out stronger than before from the European elections, we are a great country and we ask to be respected.
    "We do not ask for the centre-right (coalition) to be respected but for Italy's role be respected.
    "Italy is a founding EU country, a G7 country, and the second-largest manufacturing economy in Europe.
    "It cannot be kept on the sidelines of the European Commission".
    Before the vote, Meloni addressed the Trans-Mediterranean Migration Forum in Tripoli on Wednesday and said that "illegal migrants are the enemy of legal ones".
    "We have not been able to allow many legal migrants to come to Italy in recent years because we have had too many illegal ones," she explained.
    "Criminal organisations want to decide who has the right to enter our country and who does not.
    "My government has passed decrees expanding the quotas (for legal migrants) for three years, above all from the nations that help us fight against human traffickers.
    "I think everyone can see that the Mediterranean is a priority for this Italian government and the Mediterranean cannot exist without Italy and Libya together. "This is partly the reason why we have greatly improved cooperation on various fronts over the last two years. "We need to have a 360 degree approach to tackle the issue seriously," she continued. "Italy is working on this a great deal, especially at a multilateral level "The first line of intervention is the fight against human traffickers.
    "The UN tells us that this is one of the most powerful criminal trafficking networks in the world today.
    "There are people who make a lot of money using the desperation of the vulnerable, and we cannot allow it".
    She said Italy was giving a good example via the Mattei Plan, which seeks to create a new partnership with African countries to address the root causes of irregular migration and turn Italy into a sort of hub for energy supplies.
    "I don't think charity is the right approach, the predatory approach is certainly wrong," she said.
    "The right way is strategic cooperation between equals, taking ;;investments to Africa that solve problems for both parties".
    Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti and Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, meanwhile, both backed European Affairs Minister Raffaele Fitto to become Italy's member of the new EU Commission.
    "He's our candidate," Giorgetti told reporters when asked Fitto becoming a Commissioner.
    "He's the horse that's running. We're rooting for him".
    Tajani spoke about this hypothesis at the final press conference of the G7 Trade meeting in Calabria.
    "If it is him, and I am in favour of that, we will talk with the premier to see what will happen, who will take his place, how the government will decide to distribute the portfolios," Tajani said.
    "But it is a decision that is up to the premier alone," he added (ANSA).