Florence/Rome, 09/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Finnish Prime Minister Mr Lipponen, in hosting on 9 April at the Florence European University Institute the "23rd Annual Jean Monnet lecture", spoke in favour the establishment, in the preparatory phase of the next institutional reform, a Convention formed of representatives from the EU institutions and governments and the parliaments of the Member States and the candidate countries. Mr Lipponen recalled that he had already made such a proposal in his speech to the College of Europe in Bruges, before the Nice Summit. EUROPE will return to his ideas.
As for the Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato, he, in an interview to La Repubblica on Monday, proposed that an informal group - formed of European figures (at least four, maximum eight) such as, for example, Jacques Delors or Jean-Luc Dehaene - collects "the fears and concerns of public opinion" and dialogues with them, without drafting a text, but by then offering the results, - a common design - to the European bodies, in order for them to decide. Mr Amato, who uses the terms "The Four Knights of Europe", indicates that they will happily take part in this group, but that what matters, is that "this takes place, even without me". The idea came to me and Schröder, he asserted, adding: last February, in Berlin, I was explaining by plan that I had outlined a few days earlier to Chirac - and I had the impression of having convinced him of its value, when the political advisor to the Chancellor, Steiner, interrupted me saying, this is exactly what we think (…) a few weeks ago, in Stockholm, I also informed Blair, who seemed very interested to me.