(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 17 - Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday told the Lower House ahead of a European Council on December 19 that Italy is ready to dialogue with the new Syrian leadership, in agreement with European and international partners, following the overthrow of former president Bashar al-Assad's regime.
    "The fall of Assad's regime is good news, rightly celebrated by the Syrian population after over a decade of civil war.
    "The rebel forces that have established themselves are heterogeneous, they have a different provenance and potentially contrasting interests", Meloni said in her communications to the House.
    "There is obviously concern for the future of the nation.
    "Italy, the only G7 nation to have an open embassy in Damascus, is ready to dialogue with the new Syrian leadership, obviously in a context of shared evaluations and actions with European and international partners", said Meloni.
    She also pointed out that "Italy is the only Western state expressly mentioned positively... for the resumption of diplomatic activity in Damascus in a statement signed by one of the leaders of the uprising against President Assad.
    "This should confirm that there has been no support from our intelligence services, nor from the government, through the intelligence services, for the former Syrian regime".
    In her address, Meloni called for a pragmatic approach with the new administration of US President-elect Donald Trump.
    "It is indispensable to maintain a pragmatic, constructive and open approach towards the new Trump administration, using areas of potential and fruitful EU-US cooperation, and to try and prevent commercial diatribes that wouldn't benefit anyone", said the premier, who was described as a "fantastic leader and person" by Trump in reply to a question from Class CNBC after he met her at the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris earlier this month.
    The president-elect also defined her as "a real live wire" and said meeting her in Paris was "great" in an earlier interview with the New York Post.
    The premier on Tuesday stressed the need for a new directive on repatriations and for the speedy implementation of the Pact on Migration and Asylum, in her address to the House.
    "We consider as undelayable a review of the directive on repatriations and of the concept of safe country, as we believe it is important to hasten as much as possible what has been provided for by the new Pact on Migration and Asylum, also with the aim of finally shedding light on an issue that was the object of recent judicial measures of an ideological flavour which, if confirmed in their basic philosophy by the European Court of Justice, would risk compromising, at least until new EU rules come into force in 2026, the repatriation policies of all member states, a concerning and an unacceptable perspective that must be prevented with determination", said Meloni.
    The European Court of Justice is set to rule on a number of referrals by Italian courts that have suspended the validation of the detention of migrants held, among others, at a repatriation centre Italy opened in Albania earlier this year, based on a controversial agreement between Rome and Tirana.
    The Italian courts rejected the migrants' detention on the grounds that their countries of provenance, which included Bangladesh and Egypt, could not be considered wholly safe, on the basis of an October 4 sentence issued by the European Court of Justice.
    Later in October, the Italian government passed a measure setting a list of 19 safe countries for repatriation, including Bangladesh and Egypt, in order to overcome the legal hurdle to the agreement being applied, saying courts needed to rule based on the decree rather than on the European Court of Justice's sentence.
    Courts however have subsequently sought the European court's opinion on the correct implementation of the Union's law, which generally prevails over national law when it is incompatible with it.
    Speaking about the appointment to the European Commission of Italy's Raffaele Fitto as an executive vice president with the brief for cohesion and the NRRP, Meloni said the former European affairs minister, a leading member of her Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, is a "politician of value, esteemed in Italy and in Europe".
    "We can recognize how the role is adequate to the weight of our nation in Europe, confirming Italy's centrality", she noted.
    "It is not only an honorary title but a concrete tool that will enable to supervise and coordinate strategic sectors like agriculture, fishing, the economy of the sea, social housing: Italian sensibility can contribute to a pragmatic approach, overcoming the ideological and dogmatic one" of the past few years, said the premier.
    Meloni also noted that Fitto's appointment recognised the "excellent results he obtained over these past two years" as minister for European affairs, the South, cohesion and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP).
    "If Italy is first in Europe for the objectives reached and financial advancement of the NRRP it is mainly do to the excellent job he did with his offices, as well as the commitment of all the ministers and of all the institutional levels" of Italy, she said.
    On December 19, EU leaders are set to meet in Brussels to discuss Ukraine, the European Union's global role, the Middle East and migration, among others.
    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been invited to attend the meeting. (ANSA).