The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has asked the Italian Ambassador to Austria, Sergio Barbanti, to obtain clarification from the Austrian authorities on reports the government would submit a bill to give Austrian citizenship to Italian citizens of Alto Adige next September. The news was reported in the Austrian paper Tiroler Tageszeitung on Saturday. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has asked the Austrian embassy in Rome for clarification.
If the reports are confirmed, the action would be considered inappropriate and substantially hostile, especially as Austria now holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.
