BRUSSELS — The leaders of Belgium, Italy and Germany are convening a meeting with like-minded counterparts to discuss key priorities ahead of an informal meeting of EU leaders to discuss economic competitiveness next Thursday, an EU diplomat and a national official told POLITICO.

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will be joined on the morning of the leaders’ retreat — being held at a Belgian castle — by around a dozen leaders to discuss deregulation, expanding the single market, and prioritizing free trade, according to the diplomat with knowledge of the meeting.

Asked about the priorities, a national official familiar with the preparations said that these items would be “among a few topics on the agenda.”

Leaders from Eastern and Northern European states have confirmed their participation, as well as the European Commission. France has also been invited but has yet to confirm its attendance, added the official cited above, who like the diplomat was granted anonymity to discuss the plans.

The move comes as like-minded countries join forces to try and impose their vision on the way the EU works. Just last week, finance ministers from the bloc’s largest economies — Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland — confirmed they were launching a new format known as the Big Six to push the Commission to act to strengthen competitiveness and boost economic growth.

The joint push by Italy, Germany and Belgium follows a joint position paper by Meloni and Merz that was published last month as a stimulus for the informal leaders’ retreat on Thursday and a so-called European Industry Summit, being hosted by De Wever in Antwerp the day before.

Berlin and Rome have recently turned to styling themselves as the “two main industrial European nations” on a mission to stimulate competitiveness. They have thereby increasingly distanced themselves from French President Emmanuel Macron, who favors trade protection and an interventionist industrial policy.

Gabriel Gavin, Giovanna Faggionato and Zoya Sheftalovich contributed to this report. This story has been updated after Finland and Sweden confirmed their participation.