When, shortly after the leaders' working lunch on the sunny Tivat seafront, the organizers of the EU-Balkans summit called their cameramen together for the mandatory photo opportunity, the suspicion among reporters became certain: Giorgia Meloni had withdrawn from the summit. Only a few minutes later, Palazzo Chigi confirmed that, given the prolongation of her mission in Calabria, Meloni had "regretfully" decided to skip a summit that—the government, not surprisingly, emphasized—would have ended at 3:30 PM. It's likely not just a matter of schedule and agenda organization. Meloni's withdrawal appears almost like a direct signal—European diplomatic circles reason—to two leaders in particular, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz . Both have been very active in recent days on the Western Balkans front. Both, along with Keir Starmer, are organizers of Sunday's summit in London with Volodymyr Zelensky.

The Tivat summit, a sort of Montenegrin-style Saint Tropez disrupted by the arrival of EU leaders, had been scheduled for some time and had been described by the EU as a "turning point" in the integration process of the Western Balkans, especially Montenegro and Albania. Italy has been extremely attentive to this area for years and, even in the hours leading up to the summit, continued to maintain the line it has taken so far in EU forums: the accession of Ukraine and Moldova cannot be separated from that of the Balkan countries ready to join the Union. For this reason, too, the news of Meloni's withdrawal from Tivat was greeted with some surprise by those present, starting with the Montenegrin hosts and the EU leaders. A matter of agenda? Up to a point. This morning, Meloni attended the ceremony celebrating the 212th anniversary of the foundation of the Carabinieri in Reggio Calabria. Its protracted delay, Palazzo Chigi explains, is among the reasons for the cancellation. Yet, immediately afterward, Meloni chose not to travel to the Reggio Calabria airport to take off for Tivat. Instead, she went to the Prefecture to attend the postmarking of a stamp commemorating the anniversary of the Carabinieri. The appointment had not been included in the Prime Minister's agenda.