Mr Rocco Buttiglione, Italy's minister for European affairs, who stood down as EU commissioner-designate, praised the rejection by Americans of gay marriage.
Mr Buttiglione, a conservative Catholic, said in a statement that the huge popular support for President Bush was notable as was voters' rejection of gay marriage.
"It is no less significant that all of the 11 referendums in favour of homosexual unions were knocked down in the states in which they were presented. America has shown itself more religious and more attentive to values than Europe," he said.
Mr Buttiglione, who had told MEPs that he regarded homosexuality as a sin, said the outcome of the US election should "teach us something, because America is surely a symbol of economic efficiency and sets the standard of that modernity which is a point of reference for so many policies even here in Europe".