Hopes rise for EU presidency

Date: 07/12/1995

By Ivo Ilic Gabara

ITALIAN Prime Minister Lamberto Dini is growing increasingly confident that his country will find a way of ensuring stable government during its stint at the helm of the EU, which begins in January.

His confidence stems from the broad consensus among all Italian political parties on the importance of the EU presidency for the image of the country.

Dini also has the full support of Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, president of the Italian Republic. Scalfaro argues that the EU presidency is “our great responsibility towards Europe, and not only Europe, and we must prevent Italy's problems from spilling over into Europe”.

Yet the biggest obstacle to ensuring continuity remains in place - Dini, who heads a technocrat government, is due to offer his resignation by 31 December, following parliamentary approval of his budget for 1996. It is still uncertain whether Scalfaro will then yield to pressure from the main Italian political parties and call for a snap general election in March, or risk their wrath by inviting the outgoing prime minister to form a new government for the duration of the EU presidency.

Worse still, it is even uncertain whether all the political parties want snap elections in the first place. Last Sunday, Massimo D'Alema, leader of the former Communists of PDS (Democratic Party of the Left), one of the largest parties in the Italian parliament, called his peers' bluff by demanding a decision on whether there would be a general election during Italy's presidency before this month's summit of EU leaders in Madrid on 15-16 December.

Dini is working on the assumption that there will not be one. After the Italian cabinet agreed on the programme for the EU Presidency on 1 December, Dini presented it to the lower house of the Italian Parliament this week and is due to appear before the Italian Senate on 20 December to outline his plans.

Italian Foreign Minister Susanna Agnelli is also planning to do the traditional tour of European capitals from 18 December to 16 January, following a series of meetings between Dini and EU leaders which culminate in discussions with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl this weekend (9-10 December). Agnelli will then officially present the presidency's programme to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 17 January.

Dini's programme would be ambitious even for a presidency that does not have to watch its back and is intended to restore Italy's somewhat tarnished image as a founding member of the Union.

Its economic priorities are employment, the consolidation of the single market and further progress towards economic and monetary union. On the latter issue, the presidency will not question the Maastricht Treaty convergence criteria, but will rather seek more flexibility on the timetable for the introduction of a single currency.

In the field of external relations, Italy will promote a less Nordic and a more Mediterranean EU, placing the accent on the Union's role in the peace process in former Yugoslavia and the follow-up to last month's Euro-Mediterranean conference.

Late in March, Italy is expected to convene an extraordinary European summit in Turin to launch the Intergovernmental Conference. The Italians are committed to seeking institutional changes which will ensure a stronger EU presence on the international scene and the consolidation of closer links between the Western European Union and the Union. Agnelli is bound to score high in Strasbourg when she announces that the presidency will call for strong participation of the European Parliament at the IGC, possibly along the lines of its involvement in the work of the Reflection Group chaired by Carlos Westendorp.