A major shake up is needed to get the European Union back on track towards integration, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Wednesday.
Speaking at a forum held here at the ANSA news agency, Frattini urged French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country currently holds the EU rotating presidency, ''to call everyone on their sense of responsibility''.
European integration stalled last month when Ireland rejected the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum vote.
This was followed by the decision of Polish President Lech Kaczinsky not to sign the treaty even though it has been ratified by his country's parliament and he had signed the original draft.
According to the foreign minister, Italy will ratify the Lisbon Treaty before the end of the summer.
From now on, Frattini observed, more emphasis must be placed on European policies ''which people can understand'' as opposed to institutions.
''Polices are what can convince people to move forward. It would be a great mistake to stop now,'' Frattini said.
The Lisbon Treaty, which was drawn up after a European Constitution failed, is aimed at making it easier to govern an expanded EU. Turning his attention to the Middle East, Frattini said
that a 'Marshall Plan' was necessary to help relaunch the Palestinian economy.
The minister recalled that Premier Silvio Berlusconi first mooted a Marshall Plan for Palestine - in reference to the US's post-war investment plan for Europe - in 2001 but the idea was ''not widely shared''.
''Now it's necessary to repropose it,'' Frattini said.
During the ANSA forum the minister repeated Italy's position of no dialogue with Palestinian militant group Hamas, which Italy does not recognise as ''a political talking partner'' in the Middle East because of the importance of ''not legitimising terrorist movements''.
Speaking ahead of the official launch of the Union for the Mediterranean in Paris on July 13, Frattini said Italy will propose the creation of ''Euro-Mediterranean agency for small and medium-sized businesses'' which would provide ''a multiplying mechanism for opportunity''.
The ''political sense'' of the union was to move ahead with countries on the southern shores of the Mediterranean ''from collaboration to co-management'' of decisions and development projects.
He added that the union was ''a good leap forward in political quality'' from the 1995 Barcelona Process, a Euro-Mediterranean partnership that has failed to meet many of its targets.
The idea of a Mediterranean union, the brainchild of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who first touted the idea during his presidential campaign, has enjoyed enthusiastic backing from Italy from the outset.
The initiative will focus on areas such as improving energy supplies, fighting pollution, boosting maritime surveillance and creating a shared scientific community.
At the sixth annual Euro-Mediterranean conference last week, Frattini said the Union for the Mediterranean must also ''ask itself how it can help find a solution to peace in the Middle East and how to stabilize Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan''.
Speaking at the ANSA forum, Frattini said that ''Italy wants to play a leading role to help bring peace and stability in Afghanistan,'' where it is taking part in a NATO peace mission.
Italy has shown great professionalism in Afghanistan, he observed, where the 'Italian method' of ''firmness against terrorists and kindness towards civilians'' is having success.
Looking at the situation in Zimbabwe, Frattini called on the EU to take a stand ''because it is clear where the good is and where the evil is''.
The dictatorship of Robert Mugabe, the foreign minister observed, must be dealt with ''through sanctions which hurt the government but not the civilian population''.
Italy was the first EU government to recall its ambassador from Zimbabwe after the sham runoff vote won by Mugabe last week.
Frattini also said he would personally not take part in the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, preferring to ''exercise my human right to take a summer holiday''.
Any participation of a top-ranking Italian delegation, he added, would depend on the position the EU adopts.
