‘EU must intervene in foreign conflicts’- Social Democrat President

Last June, Italian politician Gianni Pittellla was elected as the President of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the second largest party in the European Parliament. Pittella visited Malta this week and took some time out of his schedule to speak with Sunday newspaper ILLUM.

“The EU cannot just watch on as thousands of people die in Libya, Iraq and Palestine,” Pittella said. “It needs to do everything possible to secure peace in those countries.”

Pittella said that the EU must do away with European Commission President Barroso’s austerity policies.

“Instead of giving hope to European citizens, austerity decreased their quality of life,” Pittella said. “This generated anger and Euro-scepticism amongst European citizens.”

“Right now, European decisions are taken in the European Council, which is composed of the member states’ leaders. They should be taken by the European Parliament.”

On the topic of irregular immigration which has strongly affected both Malta and Italy, Pittella is in favour of a European burden sharing system.

“These people are escaping from wars, ethnic extermination, dictatorships and hunger. Europe shouldn’t close its doors on them,” Pittella said. “What it should do is share the burden across all its member states and try and tackle irregular immigration at its roots.”

“Europe needs to find out exactly what leads these people to flee their home countries and tackle the problem from there.”

Read the full interview in Sunday’s edition of ILLUM.