Italy calls for EU crisis mission, as Egypt boils over

[struggle4progress]

ANDREW RETTMAN

Today @ 09:28 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Italy has said the EU should send a crisis mission to north Africa, as Egypt orders a security crackdown ahead of mass anti-Mubarak rallies on Friday (28 January).

Speaking in the Italian senate on Thursday, Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini said the EU should send a high-level "political support team" to calm tensions in Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia and other countries in the region hit by deadly civil unrest in recent days.

"The European mission ... <should> take contact with the highest levels, beginning with the authorities in Tunisia, with civil society, mayors, opposition parties, to collect information, not to give orders," he said, Italian newswires report.

"I do not think this can be dealt with by sporadic initiatives of this or that country in Europe, but only by a European initiative." ...

http://euobserver.com/9/31716