Italy, Europe and 2003 presidency

The analyse of the perspectives and their determining factors is a particular difficult task. As far as politics is concerned, the Italian response is never easy to predict. This is also true of the subject we wish to treat here, the political orientations of its Presidency. It becomes even more difficult given the attitude of the Italian authorities which combines an unusual discretion over their intentions, an often puzzling style of international relations and a cooler and more hesitant European commitment than in the past, on the surface at least.