The next Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings (ATCM) will be held in Milan, Italy, from 23 June to 3 July 2025.
The ATCM is attended by representatives from all Signatory States to the Antarctic Treaty, observers and invited experts. It takes place annually “for the purpose of exchanging information, consulting together on matters of common interest pertaining to Antarctica, and formulating and considering and recommending to their Governments measures in furtherance of the principles and objectives of the Treaty” (Art. IX). The meetings are hosted each year by decision-making states, the so-called “Consultative Parties”, which amount to 29 of the 58 Signatory States. Members are granted Consultative status by a Decision of the ATCM, based on consensus of the decision-making States.
The ATCM has a permanent Secretariat based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with the task of supporting the annual Consultative Meeting and facilitating the achievement of the objectives of the Treaty. The ATCM is structured into a Committee on Environmental Protection (CEP) and three working groups, respectively dedicated to: 1) legal and institutional issues; 2) scientific cooperation; 3) Antarctic tourism.
Both the CEP and the three working groups mentioned above submit the different issues to be approved to the attention of the ATCM Plenary. In this regard, a fundamental role is played by the consensus rule, which is required for approval.
The ATCM operates using three different types of acts: Measures, which contain provisions that are intended to be legally binding once approved by all Consultative Parties to the Treaty according to their respective internal principles; Decisions, which become effective upon adoption or at times otherwise specified; and Resolutions, which are exhortatory in nature.
ATCM meetings will be held in 2025 at Fiera Milano Congressi (MI.CO.), one of the most prestigious congress centres in Italy and Europe, offering ample space and a variety of operational solutions for holding congress events.
Easily accessible by public transport, Fiera Milano provides a number of possible hotel solutions in its immediate vicinity. For further information on the venue and its features, please visit www.fieramilanocongressi.it
Signed in Washington on 1 December 1959 by twelve countries (Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, Norway, New Zealand, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States of America), the Antarctic Treaty aims to ensure the peaceful use of Antarctica and freedom of scientific investigation on the continent. Over the decades, several nations have acceded to the Treaty, which today counts 58 signatory states.
The Antarctic Treaty has been joined by other international agreements on Antarctica that today form the “Antarctic Treaty System”. These agreements are, in chronological order: 1) The Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals, signed in London in 1972; 2) The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, signed in Canberra in 1980; 3) The Protocol on Environmental Protection, signed in Madrid in 1991, including six Annexes. One of the agreements, the Canberra Convention, gave birth to an international body, the Commission on Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), based in Hobart, Australia.
The Madrid Protocol on Environmental Protection has placed environmental protection issues at the centre of the Antarctic agenda. The Committee on Environmental Protection (CEP) was created as the main subsidiary body of the ATCM, which receives the different measures to be adopted on environmental matters from the CEP.
A cornerstone of the Antarctic Treaty System is ensuring the transparency of scientific activities conducted on the Continent. This principle is embodied in Article VII of the Washington Treaty, which states that “All areas of Antarctica, including all scientific stations, installations and equipment within those areas … shall be open at all times to inspection.”
Seventy-five years after the signing of the Washington Treaty, the Antarctic Treaty System constitutes a body of agreements governing cooperation between states in Antarctica and is a cornerstone of today’s system of international relations.
Italy signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1981 and became a Consultative Member in 1987. In 1985 the Italian National Antarctic Research Programme (Programma Nazionale di Ricerca in Antartide, PNRA) was established with the task of promoting and supporting Italian research in Antarctica in order to increase knowledge of the continent and to support the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) in the activities of the Antarctic Treaty System. The Italian Ministry of Universities and Research (MUR) is responsible for the PNRA and relies on the National Scientific Commission for Antarctica (Commissione Scientifica Nazionale per l’Antartide, CSNA) to define objectives, strategies and research programmes. The National Research Council of Italy (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, CNR) is responsible for coordinating scientific research activities in Antarctica. The Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) is responsible for the technical-logistical organisation of research and oversees the construction and maintenance of the plants and instruments installed in Antarctica. The National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale, OGS) is responsible for the technical and scientific management of the icebreaker ship Laura Bassi.
There are two Italian stations in Antarctica: the “Mario Zucchelli” coastal summer station located on the Terra Nova Bay area along the coast of northern Terra Victoria (74°42’ South and 164°07’ East), and the Concordia Station, managed jointly with France, which has been open continuously since 2005 and is located on the Antarctic Plateau at an altitude of 3,233 m in the site known as Dome C (75°06’ South and 123°21’ East). Recently, in the vicinity of the Zucchelli Station, a permanent gravel runway was built to significantly improve access to the Terra Nova Bay area.
Besides these infrastructures, Italy also disposes of 15 permanent seismological, geomagnetic, geodetic, terrestrial, marine, atmospheric and astrophysical observatories for the continuous monitoring of physical, chemical and biological parameters that are vital in studies concerning the Earth system, the Cosmos and the changes in the climate, environment and ecosystems. The information provided by the permanent observatories contributes to the international effort to monitor the state of the Antarctic continent and supports numerous multidisciplinary research projects.
The PNRA is also involved in monitoring the Ross Sea marine protected area, and the Antarctic Specially Protected Areas ASPA 161 Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea; ASPA 165: Edmonson Point, Wood Bay, Terra Nova Bay; ASPA 173: Cape Washington and Silverfish Bay (with the US), ASPA 178: Inexpressible Island and Seaview Bay, Ross Sea (with China and Korea).
The scientific priorities of the PNRA are: a) Earth/ice/climate interactions, b) life in Antarctica, c) anthropogenic impact and environmental contamination, d) biomedicine and psychology, e) astronomy, astrophysics and space weather. In addition to these is the development of new technology, capable of transforming research in Antarctica by extending applications outside the continent while improving the logistics that support science.
Italy, as a member of the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR), actively collaborates in a number of international research programmes, sharing knowledge, expertise and resources. The data produced during the Antarctic campaigns of the PNRA are collected in the National Antarctic Data Centre (NADC) as recommended by the SCAR Standing Committee on Antarctic Data Management (SCADM) and are made available to national and international scientific communities.
Italy’s contribution to the exploration of this vast and unique frozen continent and its seas strengthens its international role as a key player in polar studies and contributes to the collective efforts to understand, preserve and protect our planet.
