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Dec.26/04 - Jan.2, 2005 |
5 - A Political and Economic Giant
Italian Ambassador Colombo discusses the system and affairs of the EU
By Antonio Maglio
Originally Published: 2004-08-22
Marco Colombo has been the Ambassador of Italy to Ottawa since October 2001. Earlier on, he held other prestigious posts: he began his career in Santiago, in 1973 he opened the Italian Embassy to East Berlin, carried out duties as counsellor and minister in Bonn and Belgrad; he was Ambassador to Kuwait, where he was held hostage by Iraqi forses following the 1990 invasion, and to Malta. He also served as inspector general at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
From July 1 to December 31 of this year, he'll represent Italy in Canada, holding the presidency of the European Union.
Ambassador, Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini recently declared that great energy would be devoted to approving the Constitution of Europe during the Italian six-month Presidency of the Council of the EU. Let's start from this: where does the need for a Constitution come from?
"It comes mostly from the new scenarios opened by the current enlargement process. The European Union originally had six member states, now there are 15 and soon there will be 25, even though technically the new countries including Cyprus, Malta, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Hungary, will only enter on May 1, 2004. Let's not forget that, in a few more years, Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey will do likewise, and that the Union has already offered all remaining Balkan states to join. The very increase in the number of members requires new rules, at least in order to adapt the current mechanism that could not work smoothly in the new reality."
Could you give us some examples of these difficulties?
"One is truly trivial: in every capital around the world, regular coordination meetings are held among mission leaders, political advisors, trade attachés, cultural and media relations officers of European Union members. One of the practical problems we face here in Ottawa, for instance, is that very few Residences and Embassies can accommodate meetings with more than 30 participants. Logistical problems are the order of the day. If the number of people should double, the meetings would become even longer, and they are already not short to begin with. Taking any decision will be doubly difficult. This may sound rather extreme, but you can imagine the problems, of this and other kinds, multiplied manifold in Brussels..."We get the picture.
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