Brussels, 04/09/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 2 September, the Italian government criticised the European Union for its lack of support over the problem of illegal immigrants. Hot on the heels of the row over the words of the President of the Italian Council, Silvio Berlusconi, who threatened to block the functioning of the European Union (see the article), the Italian Minister for European Affairs, Andrea Ronchi, spoke out against the "lack of power in Europe when it comes to legal immigration", in an interview published on Wednesday by the Italian daily newspaper Il Corriere della Sera (our translation throughout). "So far, Europe has left us on our own. When it comes to immigration, it is so far behind that it hasn't realised that this is now a problem which affects all 27 countries of the Union", he said, adding: "although [French President Nicolas] Sarkozy has made the subject of a priority of the French Presidency [of the EU], Europe has remained absent and deaf". He went on to say that "in Europe, there are a great many selfish countries which do not feel that they are concerned by this problem (...). Spain is going its own way, Germany uses a language test to block immigrants, and so on". (B.C./trans.fl)