Italy foreign minister calls for sweeping EU reform

ROME- The European Union needs major institutional reform to reverse its diminishing influence on the world stage, Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told daily Corriere della Sera in an interview published on Monday.

Tajani, who is from the centrist Forza Italia party said:

• The roles of the European Commission president and the president of the European Council should be combined, and the figure should be directly elected by citizens;

• EU countries' power of veto should be removed "in many policy areas;"

• The European Parliament should be given the power to propose new laws, and

• EU bureaucracy should be slashed, with "two norms abolished for every new one created".

Gavin Jones/Reuters