05/08/2003 (Agence Europe) - the former Italian Permanent Representative of the EC, Piero Calamia has said in an article "Europe's Difficult Moment", published in Affari esteri (No. 39), that a clause on "cooperation structures" in defence in the European constitution "appeared indispensable" in the "current political phase of the Union, with enlargement to ten new countries". Ambassador Calamia points out that the European Convention did not reach agreement on "the introduction, in the constitutional text, of a collective defence clause, according to the schema of the Treaty of Brussels of the Western European Union", whereas in this text, the possibility of "collective cooperation" is anticipated for countries that meet high the military capability criteria and which have made commitments that are more binding in this area in view of particularly ambitious missions. This formula, open to countries that have the necessary military capability and that would like to join, would, according to Piero Calamia not block the Union's progress in this area. He concludes that the EU's defence problems "are medium term..and if we work in the meantime and include in the constitutional text the possibility for structured cooperation in this area, we will preserve future developments that will obviously depend on the will of Member States".