Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi repeated his call on Thursday for a muzzle on European Commissioners speaking publicly, dpa quoted diplomats at an EU summit as saying. The Italian leader made the remark during a debate on the criticism levelled against France by justice commissioner Viviane Reding for its expulsion of Roma migrants, a diplomat told the German Press Agency dpa. "Berlusconi said only president (Jose Manuel) Barroso should be able to make public statements on behalf of the commission," the EU diplomat said "He asked for all other members of the commission as well as all the spokespeople to be prevented from speaking in public," the source said, adding that Berlusconi asked EU president Herman Van Rompuy for a formal debate on the subject at the next EU summit. Berlusconi also said that France's expulsions of Roma were perfectly legal, the diplomat added. No other EU leader commented on Berlusconi's outburst, while Barroso defended commissioners' right to speak as he stressed that their investiture by the democratically-elected European Parliament reinforced their political legitimacy. Berlusconi made a similar request to silence members of EU executive in September 2009, after a commission spokesman said Italy had been asked to explain its controversial policy of sending back to Libya irregular migrants picked up in the Mediterranean.
