Immediately after the European Council on Dec. 19 and 20, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will fly directly from the Belgian capital to Finland to participate, at the invitation of Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, in the first "North-South" Summit, to discuss the main security challenges that the European Union faces in the current international context.

 This is a four-way summit that was supposed to take place last April, but was then postponed for agenda reasons. It is now set to take place in the days following the Brussels Summit - a summit that should represent an innovative model and be capable of reflecting transversal sensitivities at a European level.

 The quadrilateral meeting will be held in Saariselkä, a small village of 350 inhabitants located in the province of Inari, in the far north of Finnish Lapland, 260 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle. It will be attended by the Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, as well as the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Estonian Kaja Kallas.

 The program includes two sessions on Saturday 21: the first, in the morning, dedicated to the European security context, and the second, in the afternoon, with an in-depth analysis of migration issues, while, the following day, a final working session is scheduled to discuss the possible operational follow-ups to the summit and the possibility of further developing this "North-South" scheme.

 In this circumstance, the four participants all rule center-right governments in their respective countries, which would suggest an ideological homogeneity, which will facilitate the planned discussions.

 The invitation to politicians and heads of EU governments to participate in this type of restricted meetings in remote Lapland by their Finnish colleagues is not new. Former Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, in two different roles, participated in meetings in this location in 2007 and 2010. Finland, as also recalled by the Finnish ambassador to Italy, Matti Lassila, during the recent celebration of Finnish independence in Rome, has always pursued ways to promote meetings that favor peace and détente between peoples and has never hesitated to invite heads of states or governments to its territory to facilitate any occasion that can do so.

 Saariselkä is a location now known internationally as a venue for winter sports and for the opportunity to admire the Northern Lights and, at the same time, is also very attractive for Italian tourists. Ivalo Airport, the northernmost in Finland, is only about 30 km away and a direct flight from Brussels should take about 3 hours.

 It is not known where the meeting will take place, but in any case Lapland is a very welcoming place, despite the arctic climate. Prime Minister Meloni will also have the opportunity to enjoy a sauna experience under the Northern Lights (that is, if they appear). 

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