Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel meeting at a bilateral summit in Trieste Tuesday will focus on energy policy and the European Union's greenhouse gas control package, Il Sole-24 Ore reports Tuesday.
Italy and Poland led an eight-country revolt against the package at an E.U. summit in mid-October, urging the group to drop the December deadline for a new plan with sharper cuts on carbon emissions. Italy received what the paper termed as "cautious support" from Germany. The German business lobby BDI's position is similar to Italy's business association, Confindustria, which has said the carbon controls could cause economic damage because they are so costly, the paper notes.