German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday insisted they would have been ready to join U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” but were prevented by constitutional barriers.

Their rejection of Trump’s controversial Board of Peace — an integral part of his plan for post-conflict governance in Gaza — appeared to be a strategic way of not offending the U.S. president. Meloni and Merz are considered two of Trump’s closest allies in the EU and are at the forefront of trying to defuse transatlantic tensions.

Within the EU, only Hungary and Bulgaria signed up to Trump’s initiative, with many countries worried by the invitations issued to dictatorships such as Russia and Belarus.

Seeking a diplomatic way out, Rome and Berlin both turned to their constitutions.

“We are ready. But of course there are objective problems with the way the initiative is structured,” Meloni said in Rome on Friday during a joint press conference with Merz. “I have also spoken to the American president about this. Perhaps we can try to resolve these issues,” she added.

Meloni argued that Trump’s peace board would contravene a provision of the Italian constitution that precludes the country from joining international bodies in which one entity — in this case the U.S. president — would have more power than its peers.

Merz, who was in Rome for consultations aimed at strengthening German and Italian cooperation within the EU, backed up Meloni’s comments.

“I would personally be willing to join a peace board,” Merz said. He then added, however, that: “We cannot accept the governance structures, also for constitutional reasons in Germany. But we are, of course, willing to try other forms, new forms of cooperation.”

Germany had previously welcomed Trump’s invitation, while remaining on the fence. German officials said Berlin’s aim was to formulate a united response to Trump’s peace board plan, while stressing that the U.N. should remain the main multilateral forum to resolve conflicts.

Merz and Meloni spoke a day after EU leaders met for an emergency summit in Brussels —organized earlier this week amid Trump’s threats to seize the Arctic territory of Greenland and to impose new tariffs on European countries.

During the meeting, European leaders agreed the post-World War II order was slipping away, but diverged on the best strategy for dealing with Trump.

Carlo Martuscelli and Giorgio Leali contributed to this report.