Rome, 19/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - In an off-print entitled "Il cancelliere Schröder e il dibattito europeo" of the summer edition of the quarterly review, Affari Esteri, Ambassador Piero Calamia, former Permanent Representative for Italy with the EC, comments on the document by Gerhard Schröder and the German Social Democrat Party on the future of Europe. He considers that the fact that Germany "today appears more confident in expressing its European leanings, without complex, is a positive fact for a country with a pro-European tradition like Italy". The European integration process cannot simply progress on impetus from one or two countries, mainly in an enlarged Union, notes Mr Calamia. He recalls: "Already in the second half of the eighties, Delors knew how to use the pro-European impetus coming from Italy and Spain, in addition to the Franco-German impetus, to make Europe move forward. It must be said that, for achieving the internal market, there was also a remarkable contribution made by Great Britain". In his view, what counts is "staying on track". He believes the "institutional balance between Council/Commission/Parliament, if it continues to evolve as in the past decades, with a strengthened role for Parliament and strengthened powers of the other institutions, remains valid".
On the other hand, Mr Calamia criticises the part of the SPD document that "reflects on the demands made by the Länder", which would like to regain power in certain sectors (agricultural and structural policy, competition, State aid …). He noted "a certain contradiction between the integrationist conception of the document for the new and important sectors (…) and the idea of restoring to Member States powers in traditionally Community sectors". Furthermore, Piero Calamia criticises the hypothesis of "attributing powers allocated to the Council to the Commission". This is not realistic at the present time and seems to "completely ignore the role of national governments and even that of the European Council".