Italians avoid Berlusconi 'Nazi' jibe

The Italian government tonight ducked another opportunity to apologise to the European Parliament for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s “Nazi” jibe.

Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini side-stepped the issue when he visited Brussels to talk to MEPs about his plans for the next six months while Italy holds the EU presidency.

A polite understanding that MEPs would not raise a fuss over the issue helped Mr Frattini get through a presentation to the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

And when asked about the issue at a press conference afterwards, Mr Frattini said “contacts” were still going on between the Parliament and Rome.

Mr Berlusconi himself made it clear last Friday that he has no intention of apologising for likening German Socialist MEP Martin Schulz to a Nazi camp commandant during a heated debate in Strasbourg last week.

But that has left the European Parliament president Pat Cox struggling to find a face-saving formula, having warned that no apology would mean no cooperation between MEPs and the Italian government on EU issues.

Mr Frattini was saying little, but hinted that some kind of compromise could be found to bring the continuing wrangle to an end.

“Today I concentrated on the substantive issues that the Italian presidency is intending to carry out and the programme it wants to achieve. We believe this is a great contribution for Europe.

“But it is clear that the heads of the political groups (in the Parliament) and President Cox will be contacting the Italian presidency and when these contacts have been achieved you will know the results.”