20 April 2007 :

during his visit to Algiers, the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Massimo D'Alema, explained that submitting the resolution on the moratorium on capital punishment depended on the outcome of the Council of General Affairs. “The Council will meet in Brussels on April 23. If there's a European consensus then the resolution will be presented to the current UN General Assembly. Otherwise, it will have to wait until the next session in September.” He emphasised Italy’s commitment: “The EU Countries have presented a declaration for the abolition of the death penalty. In the meantime we (Italy) are collecting signatures, we currently have 89. This is a large number, even if we haven’t reached the absolute majority of the UN member countries.” D'Alema emphasised "this is the first condition: if we get a large number of signatures, an absolute majority, then the road will surely be paved for the adoption of the resolution by the UN General Assembly. At the same time we've stressed, in the European context, the urgency of presenting the resolution. We need to see whether we have reached a European consensus and therefore present the resolution to the current General Assembly, or whether it is necessary to wait until the next session in September. Fundamentally, I think this will be the discussion on Monday at the Council of General Affairs.