Italy Pushes for EU Seat at UN

Italian Foreign Minister Frattini warned of national egoism in an article published Monday in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "The prospect of a European seat in the Security Council is anything but impossible," Frattini wrote. "But it might be if we get stuck in the one-way street of national egoism." Frattini continued that egoism could "destroy any hope that Europe could one day speak with a single voice in the United Nations." Speaking at the UN’s 59th general assembly in New York last week German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer repeated Germany's demand to have a permanent seat in the powerful UN Security Council, which received support from France and Britain. Reform of the Security Council has been debated for years. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has set up an expert commission to propose changes, possibly to report in December. (EUobserver.com)