Relations between Italy and the United Kingdom remain strong despite protests by British workers at an oil refinery in the east of England over a decision to award a construction contract to an Italian firm, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Wednesday.
Frattini said that Italy and the UK were working together for a ''close collaboration'' as the respective heads of the Group of Eight and the Group of Twenty major economies this year.
Both governments have strongly condemned ongoing wildcat strikes by workers at French oil group Total's Lindsey refinery near Grimsby over the decision to award a £200 ($285, 224 euro) million contract to an Italian firm, IREM, employing Italian and Portuguese workers.
Frattini said Wednesday that British police had worked ''very well'' to guarantee the physical safety of Italian workers in the UK and recognised British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's confirmation of the principle of free movement of labour within the European Union.
Frattini stressed that it was important ''to create more growth and more jobs and certainly not to stand in the way of foreign workers'' in order to revitalise the world economy.
''We're all in the same boat and we're also trying to work for close cooperation between the G8 and the G20,'' he said.
In view of upcoming G8 and G20 summits, Frattini is set to visit London February 16-17, when he will meet his British counterpart David Miliband, while Brown is set to meet Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi in Rome on February 19.
The G8 is a forum for the governments of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The G20 is a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 19 of the world's most powerful economies, plus the EU.
