ITALY: European Union leaders and foreign ministers will have just nine weeks to complete substantive negotiations on the EU's new constitutional treaty.
Italy's Prime Minister, Mr Silvio Berlusconi, announced at the weekend that the Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) to complete the work of the Convention on the Future of Europe will start in Rome on October 4th and end on December 12th.
Mr Berlusconi suggested that such a short time would be adequate if sufficient pressure was exerted on EU foreign ministers to agree a deal. He said that he and his fellow leaders could be inspired by the tradition in Rome of a conclave, where cardinals remained in negotiation until they agreed on a choice for pope.
"My colleagues in the European Council might be happy with the idea of putting the foreign ministers in jail and not letting them out until they have reached an agreement."
Mr Berlusconi made his announcement during a meeting with European journalists in Rome's Villa Madama, a 16th-century palace built by the Medicis. He praised the work of the EU Convention, but said that he had more radical reform in mind.
Mr Berlusconi said he had discussed with the Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi, the idea of creating a "European government" by giving the jobs of commissioners to EU prime ministers.
"When we sit at the Council table, we sit down as representatives of our countries. But each prime minister could also be the minister of a subject area for the European Union," he said.
Mr Berlusconi suggested that prime ministers could meet in Brussels once every two weeks to co-ordinate their work, leaving the implementation of their policies to senior commission officials.
"This could be done without changing the constitution. In this way the prime ministers would be commissioners and we would have a true European government," he said.
Mr Berlusconi rejected suggestions that his government had abandoned Italy's traditional, pro-European foreign policy stance, but he stressed the importance of maintaining good relations with the United States.
Mr Berlusconi spent much of his hour-long dialogue with journalists defending his record and complaining that his image in the international media is misleading. He said that other EU leaders knew that he brought moderation to all their meetings.
"When I read newspaper reports about me, I see someone who is the opposite of myself. If there is someone who is moderate and well-balanced, it is me. As a businessman, I never had any strikes in my companies and in my political party we have no problems, nobody departs from my line," he said.
Mr Berlusconi blamed his legal troubles in recent years on "communist" judges whom he described as "a cancer" in Italian democracy. The prime minister, who is also Italy's richest man, claimed that he was more persecuted than any citizen of any country in Europe.
"No Italian and no citizen of any western country has ever been so persecuted as myself," he said.
He claimed his foreign critics insulted the intelligence of Italians, but said the only media outlets in Italy that offered a balanced view of him were those controlled by his own family. Mr Berlusconi said that, despite what he saw as a media bias against him in Italy, he was held in high esteem among the people.
"I have succeeded in everything I have undertaken. I have built towns, bought television channels. I am the only one to have won the European Cup four times," he said.