The Congress of Deputies in Madrid hosted an event on Thursday, 23 March. It was promoted by the Italian Embassy and the Representative Offices of European institutions in Spain to celebrate the successes of 60 years of European integration, while also reflecting on the future of the EU. Inaugurated by the Speaker of the Congress of Deputies, Ana Pastor, the event was attended by the Italian Ambassador, Stefano Sannino, and high ranking Spanish and European representatives, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Alfonso Dastis, the European Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete, the Vice President of the European Parliament, Luis Valcárcel, and the Speaker of the Spanish Senate, Pío García-Escudero.
With the specific aim of looking to the future and listening to new generations, a prominent role was given to young people during the event. This included a presentation by an Erasmus student and speeches by pupils from the Italian School in Madrid who won a competition on the theme of Europe. In front of an audience of Spanish national and European parliamentarians, Ambassadors, representatives of civil society, universities and the media, a student from the Italian school read her “Letter to Europe” and young people from the Italian lower secondary school also wished the EU a happy birthday by reading out some “tweets”.
