Rome, 06/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - In an interview with the Corriere della Sera, the president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, vigorously restated his unconditional condemnation of the "intergovernmental method" for managing Europe and making it move forward. He mainly said: "the purely intergovernmental method, without the Commission, is the end of Europe. As I see it, there is a major role for national governments. The Commission is also at the service of the States. But there are now sovereignties that can no longer be expressed at the level of the States (…). No-one thinks of creating a super European state. But, without a strong Commission, with simple collaboration between governments, we would get nowhere". The elements which brought Mr Prodi to this conclusion included the oil crisis: "This crisis was a great moment for collective awareness, a lesson not to be forgotten. At the Ecofin Council meeting, I noted that even the countries most hostile to a common energy policy admitted that, as individual countries, they did not have the mechanisms for facing up to the situation. It is on the basis of these considerations that I have formed the idea of a package of initiatives with Russia for energy supplies. In this kind of dialogue, Europe can be but united".
On the subject of his speech in Strasbourg on Tuesday, Mr Prodi specifies: "I have waited before taking position, because what I said was weighed up and considered. I did not wish my speech to be interpreted as self-defence. The first year has been a year of meditation and caution".