11 May 2007 :

"My Government is already committed to reopening the question of the UN Moratorium on Capital Punishment during the current General Assembly. This is based on of the mandate of both the European and Italian Parliaments. Achieving the objective of a moratorium would be historically and politically significant, and of enormous importance,” Romano Prodi, the President of the Council, declared. “Italy has raised the issue at the UN for 14 years and we will continue to work both in Europe and internationally for a global abolition of capital punishment. In the meantime, we are working for a universal moratorium.” This will be on the agenda at the meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers in Brussels on May 14.
“I also want to thank Marco Pannella and the Radical politicians who are continuing their non-violent struggle. They have demonstrated an extraordinary political and civil commitment,” Prodi added.
Marco Pannella, representing the Radical Party, Hands Off Cain, and the group of Radical politicians that joined him for 23 days on his hunger strike (Lucio Bertè, Guido Biancardi, Sergio D`Elia, Michele Rana, Claudia Sterzi and Valter Vecellio), stated:
“The Radicals appreciate Prodi’s statement on the death penalty, but we are pushing to improve the management of this issue by the German President of the EU.”
“We recognise his confirmation of the Italian Government’s commitment on the eve of the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council on May 14. However, we have to frankly disassociate ourselves from the tone being used, a tone which suggests that this is an ordinary matter. We must improve the German Presidency of the EU’s management of this issue. This management has evidently contributed to the continuation of the decade-long sabotage of the UN General Assembly’s moral and institutional rights and obligations to express itself with an ever stronger majority in favour of the moratorium, on the path to the complete abolition of the death penalty.”
“Hiding information on the impropriety of the German Presidency from the public and the media is a grave error, and it is something that the Italian Government may have already done."