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BRUSSELS: Italy's presidency of the European Union (EU) is on probation after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi half-apologized for comparing a German lawmaker with a Nazi concentration camp guard, in an incident that blighted his debut in the role.
Berlusconi's outburst in the European Parliament on Wednesday, and his refusal to retract it when given the chance, confirmed the misgivings of all those around Europe who doubted his suitability to represent the 15-nation bloc on the world stage or steer its affairs through sensitive times.
By suggesting that the German Socialist parliamentarian Martin Schulz would make a perfect Nazi camp "Kapo" in a film, the soccer-mad billionaire businessman-turned-politician scored the fastest own goal in the history of the rotating EU presidency.
He may also have dealt a final blow to countries that sought to preserve the six-month rotation among member states, which looks increasingly like a game of Russian roulette.
"I've been in the parliament since 1989 and I've been through 29 presidencies, and I will always remember this one, but not for the right reason," European Parliament President Pat Cox, a centre-right Irish liberal, told BBC television.
Succeeding cautious but steady Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, who attenuated a damaging EU rift over the Iraq War, and charismatic Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who led historic EU enlargement negotiations to a triumphant conclusion, Berlusconi got off to the worst possible start.
Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh said that if EU leaders had been able to elect a longer-term chairman of their European Council, as is proposed in a draft constitution, they would not have picked the Italian leader.
"Berlusconi will be under very close surveillance by his peers and by the EU institutions from now on," said John Palmer, director of the European Policy Centre think-tank.
"The hope is that the professionals in the Italian Foreign Ministry will be allowed to run the presidency, and Berlusconi kept as far away from business as possible," he said.
Among the main challenges facing Italy are chairing negotiations on a first EU constitution, based on the draft drawn up by Valery Giscard d'Estaing's Convention, and reviving strained relations with the United States.
Yet on both of these issues, Berlusconi will require the active co-operation of EU partners and institutions alienated by his intemperate display this week.
His slur offended Europe's most powerful nation, Germany, and sparked tension both with the European Parliament, which has a growing say on most EU legislation, and to a lesser extent with the executive European Commission, headed by his Italian political rival, Romano Prodi.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder accepted an expression of regret from Berlusconi on Thursday - which the Italian insisted was not an apology - and declared the matter closed as far as the German Government was concerned. But Cox said Berlusconi would have to make amends to the EU legislature before he could put the incident behind him.
Most of the 15 EU members and 10 acceding countries are keen to prevent the incident wrecking co-operation among the bloc's institutions, but even among Berlusconi's fellow centre-right leaders, mistrust runs deep.
Conservative Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said the Italian leader's words had been shocking and unacceptable among democrats. Centre-right Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said he should have retracted them at once.
Many leaders were upset when Berlusconi blocked agreement at a Brussels summit in December 2001 on the sites of a dozen new EU agencies.
He demanded that the European Food Safety Agency be given to Parma, home of a famous ham, instead of Finland - and added insult to injury by saying the Finns didn't even know what "prosciutto" (dried ham) was.
Italy also irked its partners this year by holding up a long-awaited EU deal on taxing cross-border savings income to demand relief for its farmers from fines for exceeding their milk production quotas.
And Euro-sceptical or anti-immigrant comments by Italian Reforms Minister Umberto Bossi and his Northern League party have caused consternation in many EU countries.
Such hostage-taking of EU business to impose a national interest is by no means peculiar to Italy or Berlusconi.
But after this week's incident, diplomats say Italy's behaviour will be under close scrutiny from partners anxious to avoid further embarrassment.
(China Daily July 7, 2003)
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