What Mr Prodi needs

Somebody who would definitely benefit from a long meeting with Rep. Nancy Pelosi is erstwhile EU commission president and current Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi.

In Berlin yesterday, addressing a congress on the EU's future organised by Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD), he dismissed the idea of renegotiating the EU constitution, or slimming down the document.

Prodi, who was the president of the commission when the constitution was mapped out, declared: "The first option is, in my view, politically unrealistic and the second is inappropriate."

The former president did not believe that the EU would get better results if it tried to renegotiate the treaty, adding that there was no "guarantee" that a new text could meet the expectations of all of "Europe's" citizens.

He also rejected calls for reducing the scope of the constitution. "This does not convince me," he said. "I am of the view we cannot try to sneak out of our troubles because this would send a changed message to Europeans, namely that we are scaling back our ambitions," Prodi added.

What he obviously needs is "a living document that dwells in the hearts of those who believe, and is continually refreshed to reflect the mood of the nation (i.e., Europe) and desires of the individual."

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