22/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - In the spring issue of the quarterly review, Affari Esteri (Largo Fontanella Borghese 19, I-00186 Rome), Pietro Calamia, former Italian permanent representative at the EU, once more calls for the deadlock over the European constitutional treaty to be broken without, however, losing any of the major breakthroughs achieved by the text - and also without giving the wrong signal to the French and Dutch who rejected it. With their no-vote, these two countries did not call for progress already made to be cancelled out, such as progress on the voting system at the EU Council, said Ambassador Calamia. He went on: “It is hard to imagine that citizens take an interest in the legal answers to their concerns (which are real). Citizens are interested in political commitments. And interpretative declarations and additional protocols could be the best way to provide such responses”. This corresponds to the political message sent out by the twenty countries meeting in Madrid on 26 January, Mr Calamia commented. He said the approach sketched out by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano at the European Parliament on 14 February (EUROPE 9366) is perfectly in line with the conclusions reached in Madrid: “It has the solidity of a platform based on a text that has already been ratified by a very, very large majority, and that can be improved by additions and interpretations on certain aspects” giving rise to citizen concern. (mg)