On 15 September, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier travelled to Italy at the invitation of Italian President Sergio Mattarella for the 16th Arraiolos Group meeting of the non-executive heads of state of the European Union.

This year, the Presidents of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia attended the meeting in Rome along with the Federal President. Topics on the agenda were the European Union on the path to strategic autonomy and the contribution of the European Union to multilateralism in the post-pandemic world.

The informal format is named after Arraiolos in Portugal, where the first meeting took place in 2003.