Rome, 19/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - In a special edition on "The future of the European Union" in the quarterly review Affari Esteri, Pietro Calamia, who was the Italian Permanent Representative with the European Community from 1984 to 1990, feels that the true weaknesses of the Treaty of Nice is the formula agreed upon for the composition of the European Commission and the fact of having ignored the issue of the rotation of the Council Presidency. According to him, the Commission must remain a political institution, and cannot become an Aeropagus of the wise above the political reality of the Member States. It would thus be preferable, in order to ensure its authority that, while maintaining its independence, it may express the "opinions of a not too reduced part of the European population". This aim could be achieved if small groupings, formed of a few countries, selected a Commissioner, on the basis of the rotation rule, he feels. As for the Council Presidency, Mr Calamia notes that it would not be possible, in a Union of 25 to 30 countries, to maintain the six monthly system of rotation.
Finally, Ambassador Calamia hopes that, at a time when the debate over the future of Europe begins, at least the countries that have been over the recent years the troublemakers most convinced of the European unification process to seriously discuss between each other the means and instruments to reinforce the presence and the role of the Union on the international arena. Mr Calamia, who notes that Italy is among these countries and that its role in Europe has been more inclusive than is generally recognised, says he has no doubts over the fact that economic integration, as advanced as it may be, will not be able to hold out indefinitely if it does not base itself on a growing political cohesion between the Member States.