On Wednesday 15 March, the Italian Embassy in Ljubljana, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute, held a conference at the Slovenian National Museum of Contemporary History entitled Origins and prospects of Europeanism on the sixtieth anniversary of the signing of the Treaties of Rome.
The event, which was also attended by the President of the Slovenian Senate Mitja Bervar, began with a speech by the Italian Ambassador, Paolo Trichilo, followed by a lectio magistralis by Prof. Alberto De Bernardi, lecturer in Contemporary History at the University of Bologna. Mr De Bernardi focused on the ideals that led to the birth initially of the ECSC and subsequently the EEC, pointing out how they are connected by the experiences of European anti-fascism, also discussing the conceptual contribution made by Altiero Spinelli and the writers of the famous Ventotene Manifesto.
