Brussels, 01/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has called on the Greek EU Presidency to extend the summit on Defence Europe to be held on 29 April in Brussels to all fifteen EU members. At this stage, participants are Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg. The initiative is a "fair" one and many of the Fifteen agree on the themes to be covered, he told La Repubblica, while expressing the hope that the meeting would come "within the institutional framework".
The Presidency has not been officially contacted by Italy, which by way of the press, announced that it would be requesting its support for opening up the summit to all EU Member States on 29 April. A Presidency source declared that, "We learned about that through the press", adding, that for the moment, no decision had been taken. However, if the initiative of the four Member States is transformed into a European summit, the Presidency would organise it. In this case, future Member States would be able to attend as observers.