(ANSA) - TRIESTE - ''There is a state of mind in Europe which is not in favour of further enlargement, and this shows Europe's shortsightedness and lack of vision on this subject'', said today in Trieste Franco Frattini, former Italy's foreign minister and vice-president of the EU Commission, current President of a Section of the Council of State and chairman of the Italian Society for International Organization (SIOI), on the sidelines of a conference on the EU's enlargement process and on the Balkans, organized at the Mib School of Management in collaboration with the Central European Initiative (CEI).

''Leaving the Balkans in the grip of a potential infiltration of terrorists, organized crime and ultra-nationalist groups is not in the interests of Europe, and as an Italian citizen, I am quite worried'', he added. ''It is clear that the more the European 'magnet' works - he said - the more these countries maintain stability''. (ANSA).