The plenary of the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, last Wednesday rejected with 338 votes against 335 a motion for a resolution criticizing the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for his entrepreneurial involvement in printed media. The resolution was proposed by four groups, ALDE, S&D, GUE and the Greens. Protagonist of the rejection of the ALDE proposal by the European Parliament in Strasburg was MEP Mario Mauro, leader of the “Il Popolo della Liberta” group in the European Parliament. After the result was announced, the Italian Prime Minister interrupted his meeting in Quirinale and called Mario Mauro to congratulate him.
The leader of the EPP group in the European Parliament Joseph Daul said after the vote that the European Parliament was neither the “appropriate place to discuss national issues, nor to make a case against any government of an EU member state”. Daul added that “the EPP has worked in recent weeks to make this argument. At the same time we demonstrated the bad faith of certain political groups, who tried to hide behind the principle of freedom of information to attack their political opponents. The EPP stands for freedom and independence of information, in Europe and outside Europe. Yet this principle cannot be an instrument for the benefit of anyone. As I have stressed to the press, my group will take the initiative to quickly organize such a debate in parliament, in an orderly fashion.”
The outcome of the vote drove to political hysteria the supporters of the resolution and Greens/EFA leader Rebecca Harms and Dutch Green MEP Judith Sargentini, reacted in a manner reflecting disappointment and anger by stating that, “This is a black day for press freedom in Europe.”
No mention was made, however by the MEPs of the anti-Berlusconi coalition, a politically heterogeneous mix of Liberals, Communists and sympathizers, to the real threat of the free press in Europe. That is the concentration of media ownership and the concentration of ownership of the printed press distribution networks. In both cases, we are in front of flagrant violations of the European law of which nobody, in ALDE, GUE and associates, speaks about.
For Silvio Berlusconi and his “Il Popolo della Liberta” party, the rejection of the proposed resolution by a small gruppuscolo from within ALDE, the “Italia dei Valori” of Antonio Di Pietro group was a great victory. In this context, speaking of the “freedom of Press” in Italy it is worth mentioning that no newspaper, among those strongly criticizing Berlusconi every day, made a proper service to the outcome of the Strasburg vote.
The political conclusion of this exercise is that European institutions cannot be used by occasional coalitions and small groups in the European Parliament, to bring national confrontations they cannot manage nationally, on the European level.