WRITTEN QUESTION P-0757/02 by Giuseppe Di Lello Finuoli (GUE/NGL) to the Council. Statements by Mr Bossi.
Date: 2002-03-19
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Italy, anti-European movement, minister, public statement

C 229 E/130

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

26.9.2002

Mr Silvio Berlusconi, who is not only President of the Italian Council but also Italy’s temporary Foreign
Minister, attended the Lega Nord congress, where Mr Bossi repeated his accusations and invective aimed at
the entire European Community. Not only did Mr Berlusconi not react to those accusations; he implicitly
endorsed them through his silence and his smiling acquiescence.

Such behaviour on the part of leading representatives of the Italian Government may cast doubt on Italy’s
genuine desire to ‘cooperate fairly’ in European integration.

In particular, such statements indicate that Italy might not ‘facilitate the achievement of the Community’s
tasks’ and might encourage ( actively or passively ( measures which could jeopardise the attainment of
the EC Treaty’s objectives (Article 10 of that Treaty).

What action is the Council intending to take in order to clarify this state of affairs?

(2002/C 229 E/147)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0757/02

by Giuseppe Di Lello Finuoli (GUE/NGL) to the Council

(19 March 2002)

Subject: Statements by Mr Bossi

The Italian minister responsible for institutional reform, Mr Umberto Bossi, has recently described the
European Union as ‘Stalinist’ and as a kind of ‘Forcolandia’ (a colourful, pejorative term which suggests that
the EU promotes acts which undermine the fundamental freedoms of the individual). Other government
representatives share or at least endorse his deplorable views.

Mr Silvio Berlusconi, who is not only President of the Italian Council but also Italy’s temporary Foreign
Minister, attended the Lega Nord congress, where Mr Bossi repeated his accusations and invective aimed at
the entire European Community. Not only did Mr Berlusconi not react to those accusations; he implicitly
endorsed them through his silence and his smiling acquiescence.

Such behaviour on the part of leading representatives of the Italian Government may cast doubt on Italy’s
genuine desire to ‘cooperate fairly’ in European integration.

In particular, such statements indicate that Italy might not ‘facilitate the achievement of the Community’s
tasks’ and might encourage ( actively or passively ( measures which could jeopardise the attainment of
the EC Treaty’s objectives (Article 10 of that Treaty).

What action is the Council intending to take in order to clarify this state of affairs?

(2002/C 229 E/148)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0779/02

by Armando Cossutta (GUE/NGL) to the Council

(19 March 2002)

Subject: Italian Government statements falling outside the democratic framework of

the Charter of

Fundamental Rights

At the recent congress of the Lega Nord, a party which holds three important ministries in the Italian
Government headed by Mr Berlusconi, the party secretary, Umberto Bossi, Minister for Institutional
Reforms, expressed a number of political views of an extremely serious nature, opposing the democratic
principles established by the Treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

This is not just a case of a legitimate anti-European point of view which we do not endorse. The
statements made by ministers of the Berlusconi Government at the Lega Nord congress, which Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi approves since he did not dispute them at the congress, are in blatant violation
of the principles on which the European Union is founded, as set out in Article 6 of the TEU.