12/04/2006 (Agence Europe) - In a recent contribution on the subject of the reflexion period on the European constitutional treaty, which was published in Affari Esteri of April 2006, the former Italian permanent representative to the EU, Piero Calamia, reaffirms that the European institutions could get closer to the citizens by making progress in fields in which European action has appeared lacking in recent years: economic and social aspects of the monetary union, energy policy, immigration, policy towards the Balkans, the Mediterranean and the Middle East, "the thematic complex of security and defence". "Much of the confusion which has come to light in recent times also stems from the ambiguous messages of (...) certain sections of the political classes. One need only think, for Italy, of the doubts about the euro, the achievement of which represents the highest point of European construction since it began", noted Ambassador Calamia, who believes that we must "leave these shortcomings behind to relaunch European integration". At the same time, he believes, procedures to ratify the constitutional treaty should continue, starting with the countries which are doing so via the Parliament. And it is not a cause for "concern if, in order to up the pace, progress was made, with the participation of the institutions, by dint of agreements between certain Member States, agreements which are open for the other Member States to join at a later date". President Ciampi, he points out, told the summit of seven presidents, which was held in Dresden on 4 and 5 February, that European unification has always been stimulated by vanguards.