EU 'can't give up international role'

(ANSA) - Rome, March 17 - President Sergio Mattarella said Friday that the European Union must be a major player on the international arena. "In a world increasingly based on big players, full-blown institutional giants, Europe cannot give up its role and its possibility for influence and make itself smaller," Mattarella said during a lunch at the presidential palace with speakers of EU parliaments. "The EU sometimes shows insufficient capacity to respond in a convincing, effective way to the demands and expectations of its people".