A key moment for the European Council held on June 30 took place on the eighth floor of the Europa Building.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni sat with her counterparts from Poland and Hungary, respectively Mateusz Morawiecki and Viktor Orban, on a couch in the Italian delegation's room. Morawiecki and Orban had just blocked an agreement with EU leaders by opposing the conclusions of a pact already signed in Luxembourg that would change how asylum seekers are processed at the border and how they are relocated across Europe.

Meloni had just been tasked with the arduous role of acting as a mediator with the two nationalist leaders. "It was an uphill mission," well-informed European sources said after the trilateral meeting.

Indeed, the mediation failed.

Rome stresses opposition to primary movements

The chapter on migration was scrapped from the conclusion's text and replaced by a statement made by the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, in which he stressed the need to finalize the pact while "taking note" of Warsaw's and Budapest's veto.

Meloni's mediation was driven by the Italian premier's desire to make a last-ditch effort to convince Morawiecki and Orban; and by Michel's conviction, along with that of other leaders, that Meloni's political proximity to her Hungarian and Polish counterparts, in particular the latter, could play a positive role.

In the end, the Italian premier said she understood her counterpart's position: "I am never disappointed by those who defend their nations' best interests. The issue posed by the Poles and Hungarians is far from weird -- they are the two countries that have most looked after Ukrainian refugees and they are doing so with insufficient EU resources," explained Meloni.

Meloni: satisfied with Rome's role as 'protagonist'

Speaking after the summit, Meloni insisted in particular on Italy's true priority: fighting primary movements. "The only true mediation is on the external dimension of migration, we can all agree on that," she noted.

Meloni told reporters she was "very satisfied" with Rome's role as a "protagonist" in the talks and with the European Council's conclusions, including a part referring to the "flexibility of cohesion funds and the NRRP, which will allow us to better spend about 300 billion" euros, she said.

The premier then denied any problem on the economic dossiers that were not at the heart of the summit's agenda, which got stuck on the pact on migration and asylum.

The partnership with Tunisia, included at Italy's initiative in the chapter on external relations, was not scrapped. "There is unanimous consensus on our work within the EU," stressed Meloni, who is now waiting for the signature of the Memorandum of understanding between Brussels and Tunis, which will be signed on behalf of the EU by a Hungarian commissioner: Olivier Varhelyi.