On 10 May, the Farnesina’s Sala Aldo Moro hosts the 41st National Assembly of the Union of Honorary Consuls in Italy (UCOI) and the 12th International Congress of the Union of Honorary Consuls in the World (UCOIM). Over 40 years, the UCOI has united most of the almost 100 Honorary Consuls in Italy who are present, in greater or lesser numbers, in Tuscany, Campania, Lombardy, Sicily, Veneto, Liguria, Piedmont and Apulia, on behalf of approximately 130 Countries.
The UCOIM includes a large proportion of the more than 300 Honorary Consuls in the World, whose largest presence is recorded in the Americas (Brazil, United States, Argentina) and in the European Union.
The role of honorary consuls – envisaged in the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations – is constantly growing at international level. An increasing number of Countries rely on Honorary Consuls to assist their citizens abroad in the competent consular districts and to cooperate with their respective Ambassadors in promoting and developing economic, trade, cultural and scientific relations with the Countries of accreditation. The UCOI and the UCOIM work to facilitate the recognition, protection and promotion of the role of honorary consuls in Italy and in the world respectively, who often face new and complex problems such as, for example, the large migration flows currently underway.
The Rome event has scheduled contributions by representatives of the Foreign Ministry, of the Parliament, of the Diplomatic Corps, of the world of academia and business, in addition to numerous members of the UCOI and the UCOIM.
