Italy rejects ‘chaos’ jibes

Date: 07/03/1996

By Rory Watson and Ivo Ilic Gabara
MORE than a third of the way through its six-month EU presidency, the Italian government is still struggling to shrug off criticism of its handling of Union business.

After the latest undiplomatic attacks on Rome's performance, critics were told this week not to pass judgement until the end of the presidency in June.

An Italian diplomat insisted: “There is always a certain folklore about some presidencies and I think it will be possible to summarise our achievements at the end of the presidency. There have been no allegations of agreements which could have been reached but were not.”

Italian sources, rejecting charges that their government has unaccountably slowed down the pace of EU business, retort that the change in tempo is mainly due to the sharp reduction in European Commission initiatives which require government approval.

Criticism has been largely directed at the mercurial performances of Italy's Foreign Minister Susanna Agnelli and at the lack of leadership from the presidency as the country's political parties struggle for supremacy before next month's general election.

“Agnelli's handling of some issues has not been the most sure and very long, exhausting multilateral debates are definitely straining her. But she handles bilateral meetings well. She has her own style. Some like it and some don't,” said one Brussels diplomat.

Last week, the Italian presidency came under attack for its handling of a foreign affairs meeting described by one source as “rather chaotic”. More embarrassing were the salvoes launched by Consumer Affairs Commissioner and former Italian radical MP, Emma Bonino.

She accused the Italian government of plunging the Union presidency into “an incredibly difficult crisis” and castigated it for throwing away the first two months of its turn at the EU helm. She even warned that the turmoil of the early election might curtail any effective presidency to just two months.

Relations between the Italian presidency and the Commission have also been strained by the government's failure to invite the institution to last month's Rome summit on the future of Bosnia.

“Asking the Commission to foot the bill in Bosnia, while not even inviting us to the summit, is a very arrogant attitude that will not win allies for the Italians,” confirmed one Commission source.

In their defence, Italian diplomats stress that they are concentrating their efforts on a handful of areas of pivotal importance to the future of the Union.

“We are devoting a lot of attention and energy to proper preparation of the informal finance ministers meeting in Verona, where we hope to have clear ideas on the relationship between the ins and outs of a single currency. We are also concentrating on the Intergovernmental Conference and if we have a report on that for the Florence European summit in June, that will be a good result,” insisted one Italian diplomat.

The beleaguered Italian government received support this week from various EU diplomats.

One defender explained: “This is traditionally a quiet time of year. Nor, after the Spanish presidency, are there that many issues on the table. Although there may not be much political input at senior official level, a lot is being done in capitals and so one tends not to see it. Italian behind-the-scenes handling of monetary union issues appears fine to us.”

Another commented: “There are three main issues at the moment - the IGC, monetary union and unemployment - and it would be very difficult for any presidency to show a decisive result on these in just six months. I suspect these six months will be like last year's French presidency where there was a slow period and a certain lumpiness, but decisions got taken in the end.”

An area where EU officials are also seeking progress is in the conclusion of the three remaining Euro-Mediterranean agreements with Egypt, Jordan and the Lebanon before the end of June. None has been dealt with by the presidency, even though they are crucially important for Italy's own national interests.

The criticism focuses not just on the EU presidency itself, but also on the Italian government's representation of its own interests in the Union.

Diplomats maintain it has been systematically under-represented at foreign minister meetings by failing to appoint a European affairs minister, unlike most of its Union partners.

With Agnelli chairing ministerial meetings, the Italian delegation is headed either by its ambassador or an under-secretary of state and is consequently weakened, say critics.