Britain's withdrawal from the European Union next year was the focus of "cordial" talks between Italy's foreign minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi and UK business secretary Greg Clark in Rome on Thursday, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
"Brexit negotiations with the EU were at the centreof the cordial meeting, including a presentation by the British side of the White Paper on future relations between London and the EU and future economic-commercial and security partnerships," read the statement.
During his talks with Clark, Moavero raised the issue "of the fundamental safeguarding of the rights of Italian residents in the UK," after Brexit, the ministry stated.
The talks also covered "rigorous" protection of the designations of origin and geographical indications of Italian products and "the complex and sensitive" issue of the border of Northern Ireland, according to the ministry.
Italy underlined the need to reach a fully "satisfactory solution" for those living on both sides of the Irish border. EU negotiators insist the way to avoid a “hard border” is for Northern Ireland to follow EU rules as in Ireland - while UK premier Theresa May rejects new barriers to goods moving from the mainland to the troubled province.
The UK is due to leave the EU on 29 March 2019 but has yet to agree how its final relationship with the bloc will work.
EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier has rejected key elements of the White Paper containing the UK plan for a future trade and security relationship with the EU, which the government issued earlier this month.
At a press conference on Thursday after three days of talks with the UK's Brexit secretary Dominic Raab, Barnier ruled out allowing the UK to collect customs duties on its behalf, a key UK proposal for post-Brexit trade. The EU would not delegate "excises duty collection to a non-member, who would not be subject to the EU's governance structures," he said." he said.
Barnier and Raab said they would resumed negotiations in mid-August and were determined to reach a trade deal by October.
