The European Conservatives and Reformists Group in the European Parliament has today elected Italian MEP Nicola Procaccini as its new Co-Chairman, who will lead alongside Co-Chairman Prof Ryszard Legutko.

The 47-year-old politician, who worked as press spokesperson for Giorgia Meloni when she was Italy’s youth minister in 2008, takes the place of Raffaele Fitto, who was appointed Minister for European Affairs, South and Cohesion Policies in Italian Prime Minister Meloni’s cabinet.

Newly elected ECR Group Co-Chairman Nicola Procaccini said:

“We Conservatives are a constructive and important voice in the European Parliament. And I will gladly contribute to our political family becoming one of the most important political forces in the Union. Our goal is to reform the European Union and keep Member States strong and united. This means more transparency, accountability and respect for subsidiarity in the relations between Brussels and the governments and citizens of Europe.

“We want a Europe that does fewer things and does them better, with less centralism, more subsidiarity and less bureaucracy. A Europe that knows how to create real added value for its citizens. And let me add this: A Europe of states that fully respect each other in their diversity and are in solidarity with each other – but not a European unitary state. For us, that was never one of the serious ideas among those of so-called European unification.”

Procaccini cited support for Ukraine, strengthening European economies and strengthening EU’s external border protection to better manage migration flows to Europe as urgent goals of the European Union.

Procaccini has been a member of the European Parliament since 2019. He was mayor of his home town of Terracina from 2011 to 2015 and again from 2016 to 2019.