The Commission identified concerns about "undue political influence" over Italy's public broadcaster, pointing to issues about how its leadership is appointed.
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00:00When it comes to the rule of law, Italy has made little progress and more needs to be done.
00:05That's the sense of the European Commission's assessment in its latest report published on Wednesday.
00:11The European Commission has expressed doubts on a number of issues,
00:15including the latest draft reform to introduce the direct election of the Prime Minister
00:20and whether it will indeed bring more political stability.
00:23There are also concerns about whether the role of the head of state could be weakened as a result of it.
00:29The European Commission's assessment also touches on the latest justice reform
00:35and whether the independence and the authority of judges could be affected as a result of this latest reform.
00:42Here is what a British of Italy deputy, who is part of the ruling coalition, told us about the Commission's report.
00:49Something positive has been found in Brussels by this government in the last year and a half.
00:55What has been underlined as negative, such as the Rai question or the referendum,
00:59allow me to say that the Rai question is something that has been around in Italy for a long time
01:03and cannot be linked only to the Meloni government.
01:07As far as the referendum is concerned, I would like to remind you that the Italians,
01:10almost two years ago, voted for a government, voted for Meloni,
01:13and this government has been reaffirmed in the recent European elections, also to make reforms.
01:43In Italy, freedom of information and its perimeter are becoming more and more restricted,
01:48and this is what we have shown in the last few months to both the FGI and the European Commission
01:56with letters, with requests for missions, with requests for superpositions,
02:01with everything we could put on the field to say,
02:06attention, ladies and gentlemen, in Italy freedom of information is fading.
02:10Never, as in this case, has there been the occupation of the public service.
02:14The Rai has become a television with a strong political connotation of government,
02:22and this is not good, it is not good for the pluralism of information.
02:36Italian opposition parties have blamed Meloni's government for Italy's decline in democratic standards,
02:41arguing that they have long disagreed with some of the reforms at the heart of the report.