Italy seeks to relaunch EU ideal with symbolic summit

Italian Premier Matteo Renzi invites his German and French counterparts to pay their respects at the tomb of one of the founding fathers of European unity in a symbolic bid to relaunch the European project after Britain’s clamorous decision to leave the EU.

The location for Monday’s summit carries particular resonance as Europe confronts Islamic extremist violence, slow economic growth and continued anxiety over the implications of the Brexit vote. Italy has a lot to gain from a reinvigorated EU as it copes with flat GDP, the migrant crisis and political uncertainties over a constitutional referendum this fall on which Renzi has staked his government’s survival.

The island of Ventotene off Naples, filled with sun-worshipping tourists in the waning days of summer, was where detained anti-fascist Altiero Spinelli in 1941 began co-writing the “Ventotene Manifesto,” which called for a federation of European states to counter the nationalism that had led Europe to war.

The document is considered the inspiration of European federalism.

— AP