ITALIAN V ITALIAN

THE risk that Italy will take over the rotating presidency of the European Union in July at a time that Prime Minister Berlusconi may be answering charges of fraud and corruption in the courts has increased and worsened since the matter was first discussed in this column earlier this week. During a dramatic appearance in a Milan court on Monday Signor Berlusconi implicated his fellow–Italian Romano Prodi, the President of the European Commission, in the corruption charges and also alleged that Signor Prodi is part of a conspiracy of left–wing lawyers that is attempting to denigrate him by bringing false charges in the courts. The prospect of these two men having to work together at the time of Italy's presidency would be bad enough at any time but during the six months from July the important Giscard d'Estaing proposals for a new EU Constitution are due to be discussed and possibly approved; Italy's hope has been that the proposals might be enshrined in a second Treaty of Rome in succession to the first which brought the European Economic Community into existence in 1957. A preliminary meeting between Berlusconi and Prodi to discuss the Italian presidency is set for 20 June. A bad situation is made worse by the fact that Romano Prodi is expected to return from the European Commission to Italian politics in two years time so that he can lead the parties of the Left against Berlusconi's centre–right coalition in the country's next general election. Meanwhile, Signor Berlusconi has threatened to call an early general election if he is found guilty of the fraud charges against him.