09/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - The president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, answered a written question from MEP Mario Borghezio (Lega Nord, Italy) saying that the Italian government (that he presided at the time-) had in no way intervened in the operation whereby the company Telecom Italia had, in 1997, acquired a stake in Telekom Serbie. Even though the Italian State were the majority shareholder of Telecom Italia, neither the Prime Minister (who had not even been informed) nor the Foreign Minister, Lamberto Dini, or the Minister of the Treasury, Azeglio Ciampi, had to approve the operation as it was an autonomous decision by the enterprise. At the political level, Mr Prodi recalled that the relations between European countries and Serbia were, in 1997, in a normalisation phase, and that the UN had done away with the economic sanctions against this country in October 1996.