Madrid, Rome 09/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - After cancelling his meeting with Mr Ruggiero, former Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs, the President of the EU Council, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Josep Piqué explained in Madrid that he would be meeting the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi (interim Minister for Foreign Affairs following the resignation of Renato Ruggiero) on Friday afternoon. Mr Piqué exclaimed that he had no doubts about the deeply European character of Italian society, its government and in particular, its Prime Minister.
On Friday, the Italian Prime Minister will also be meeting the president of the Convention in Rome, Valéry Giscard D'Estaing and his Italian Vice-President Giuliano Amato. This should provide an opportunity to discus the question raised by Silvio Berlusconi on the representation of the Italian government within the Convention. Every government has the right to a representative, but the Italian Prime Minister believes that Giuliano Amato cannot be considered as a member of the Italian national delegation, which had been effectively agreed to at Laeken (Guy Verhofstadt had also accepted that the Vice-President of the Convention, Jean-Luc Dehaene, also represent the Belgian government: see EUROPE 5 January page 4). This issue will be examined at the General Affairs Council on 28 January at which Silvio Berlusconi will attend in his position of interim Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Next Monday, the Italian Parliament will be discussing the government's foreign and European policy at the opening session of the year. Meanwhile, the candidature of Gianfranco Fini, Vice President, and leader of the Alleanza Nazionale, for Renato Ruggiero's former position, appears to be gaining ground but new candidates are emerging as well, such as the Minister for Culture, Giuliano Urbani, and Minister for Public Works, Franco Frattini. The Reuters agency in Rome has indicated that Silvio Berlusconi had offered the post of Foreign Minister to Mario Monti, the European Commissioner for Competition but he had refused.