(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 8 - Premier Giorgia Meloni on Friday said Donald Trump's stunning comeback victory in the United States presidential election meant it was time for Europe to take stock on issues ranging from possible tariff hikes to the war in Ukraine.
    "We know what we need to do, now the point is whether we want to give member states the necessary resources - this is the real debate and I don't know whether concrete solutions will be reached this morning, but it is the central element", she said arriving at an informal European Council meeting in Budapest.
    Speaking about Tuesday's US presidential election, Meloni said that Europe should take stock and evaluate itself.
    "I think Europe should find a solution and evaluate itself.
    "It looks like we are discovering issues today, I am thinking about competitiveness, tariffs.
    "However, I remember that the debate on European competitiveness is a debate that started months ago in the wake of the Inflation Reduction Act.
    "If we wanted to say this quoting American presidents - ask not what the United States can do for you, ask what Europe can do for itself, which is this morning's debate", said Meloni.
    The US measure last year sparked concern in Europe that it could shift investments to the United States, threatening EU competitiveness.
    The European Commission responded in February 2023 with its Green Deal Industrial Plan to the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), with increased levels of state aid to help Europe compete as a manufacturing hub for clean tech products. Speaking about the war in Ukraine, Meloni also said ahead of Friday's gathering that "Ukrainians had an extraordinary courage, the West has supported Ukraine and I thinks this is the element that makes the difference".
    "We will see how the scenario evolves in the coming weeks, but I stress that until there is a war, Italy will be beside Ukraine", said Meloni.
    Trump has said he could stop the war "tomorrow" and there are fears he may press Kyiv to make territorial concessions to Moscow.
    Meanwhile, at home, Meloni sparred with the leader of Italy's biggest opposition party over what she called "the caviar Left" - the Italian term for "champagne Socialists" - and union rights.
    Meloni and centre-left opposition Democratic Party (PD) leader Elly Schlein crossed swords after the former said the Right defended workers better than "the caviar Left" and the latter shot back that she didn't eat caviar but couldn't stand castor oil, the punitive substance Mussolini's Fascists poured down opponents' throats to induce severe diarrhea.
    The exchange was sparked by Meloni's stating at a European Political Community sumit in Budapest Thursday that she was unable to take time off sick, while suffering from the flu, and had to work because she didn't have any union rights - a statement Schlein characterised as "mocking workers".
    Meloni retorted Friday: "I'm sorry that even on this we can create a controversy over something completely useless, I don't know what is meant by debasing trade union rights, which this government defends much better than the caviar Left".
    This prompted Schlein to reply: "I have never eaten caviar, but I cannot stand workers being purged with castor oil either; so we will continue to stand by them.
    "Meloni should instead deal with the minimum wage that she has denied to three and a half million workers who can no longer cope and cannot make it to the end of the month even if they work".
    Maurizio Landini, leader of Italy's biggest and most leftwing trade union CGIL, chimed into the row accusing Meloni of "bullying" workers after her 'unable to pull a sickie die to lack of rights' barb.
    "I think it's an act of bullying and for someone who is Prime Minister, sometimes, before saying things, it's better to think about it because put in these terms it's an attack on those who see those rights being questioned every day", said Landini upon his arrival at a local public transport demonstration in Rome, amid a strike that crippled Italy.
    Meloni told an Italian radio show from the European Political Community summit in Budapest Thursday that she was working despite not being well.
    Replying to an inquiry about her health from a member of her Brothers of Italy (FdI) party from the Un Giorno da Pecora show, she said: "Not well to tell the truth, but since I don't have any particular trade-union rights I'm in Budapest for the European summit to do my job".
    Meloni has been ill with the flu.
    The EPC is a 47-member forum for political and strategic discussions about the future of Europe, established in 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (ANSA).