25 May 2007 :

the Radical Euro MP Marco Pannella, still on his indefinite hunger strike along with the other Radical top members, submitted the following question to the EU Council:
"The bureaucratic structure of the Council is such that it has managed to create a situation of control and edging which has the potential of being destructive to the political direction adopted by the Council".
After the General Affairs and External Relations Council held last 14th and 15th of May, the German Minister of Foreign Affairs Steinmeier told the media: "The Presidency, along with Italy, has been given the task to prepare a text to be submitted during the next EU Council.".
Nevertheless, the final statement released by the EU Council reads: "At breakfast time the ministers went back to the current issues with the aim of pushing forward, within the UN context, the subject of the abolition of the death penalty, a subject the EU wishes to keep in the international and their own agenda. The Council will discuss the subject again during the next meeting in June, after having carefully examined the possibility of submitting such important topic to the UN General Assembly."
Instead of providing an organic, consistent and useful following to the decisions made by the Council (referred to not only by Minister Steinmeier but also by Minister D'Alema himself), the statement released by the Council's Bureaucracy completely voids the political value of the decisions on the moratorium.
It is worth stressing that such document is binding and will circulate both within the United Nations and the EU delegations throughout the world, jeopardising the "consistency" of the European campaign for the moratorium at the current UN General Assembly and weakening the present initiative and all activities to follow.
What measures does the Council intend to take in relation to this and similar episodes where the decisions made by the Council are voided by the actions of its own bureaucracy?"