Organised by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the French Embassy in Rome and hosted by the Federation of the Sea, the first Italian-French seminar on the Action of the State at Sea was held on 20 June. In the spirit of the 2021 Quirinal Treaty, it brought together top representatives from some of the two countries’ main administrations with maritime responsibilities.
The seminar was an important opportunity to initiate a dialogue between the two countries on the topics of maritime safety, the balanced and sustainable development of the blue economy, and the new strategic challenges facing the maritime domain.
Italian Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, Giorgio Silli, and Minister Counsellor of the French Embassy, Christophe Lemoine, who deputised for Ambassador Masset, who was in Paris for the Meloni-Macron summit, emphasised the privileged relationship that France and Italy are developing on these issues. France and Italy are the two main maritime powers of the European Union and are equipped with the technological tools and aeronaval assets to ensure the security of the maritime basins close to our local areas and contribute to strengthening the European presence in the world. It is a privileged relationship that the Quirinal Treaty wanted to invest in all the areas of action of the Italian government, always with a view to contributing to the European integration project, of which Italy and France have been protagonists since the beginning as founding countries.
After reiterating that the Maritime Economy constitutes a sector that generates wealth and employment and plays a decisive role in the strategic autonomy and competitive development of the two countries, Mario Mattioli, President of the Federation of the Sea, and Frédéric Moncany de Saint-Aignan, President of the French Maritime Cluster, confirmed the commitment of the two clusters to contributing to the implementation of the 2021 Quirinal Treaty.
During the panel moderated by Alessandro Panaro, Head of the Research Area of SRM (Intesa Sanpaolo Group), Adm. Sergio Liardo, Liguria Maritime Director of the Italian Coast Guard, Zeno D’Agostino, President of AdsP Trieste and President of ESPO (European Sea Ports Organisation), Eric Banel, Director General for Maritime Affairs, Fisheries and Aquaculture of France, addressed the issues of port logistics efficiency for the development of sustainable Blue Economy.
Paolo Quercia, Director of the MiMiT Centre for Studies and Analysis, led the panel dedicated to the projection of the State in the high seas, during which Adm. Giuseppe Berutti Bergotto, Deputy Chief of the Italian Navy General Staff, Gen. Ignazio Gibilaro, Commander of the Central Aero Naval Command of the Guardia di Finanza, Adm. Xavier Petit, Chief of the Operations Staff of the French Navy, and Ronan Boillot, National Director of the French Customs Coast Guard, examined the challenges of the State’s projection in the high seas, from the fight against drug trafficking to the defence of critical maritime infrastructures, particularly in the underwater domain.
The “industrial dialogue” between Fincantieri’s Chairman, Gen. Claudio Graziano, and Naval Group CEO, Pierre-Eric Pommelet, reviewed the most sensitive industrial technological challenges of the coming years, emphasising the collaboration that already exists between the two industrial groups and the desire to continue cooperation for the development of shared technological innovations.
Jean-Pierre Darnis, Researcher at Fondation pour la recherche stratégique, moderated the speeches by Adm. Aurelio De Carolis, Commander-in-Chief of the Italian Naval Squadron, Adm. Nicola Carlone, Commandant of the Italian Coast Guard, Adm. Gilles Boidevezi, Maritime Prefect for the French Mediterranean Region on the common challenges and the different approaches of the two countries to state action at sea:
Nello Musumeci, Italian Minister for Civil Protection and Sea Policies, concluded the seminar by expressing the hope that the European Union would launch a new season of debate on maritime issues in which Italy and France would play a leading role. In this perspective, the Plan for the Sea, which will see the light in the next few weeks, condenses critical issues and solutions to finally give Italy an integrated strategy for the sea. In this sense, it is hoped that this first Italian-French seminar on the sea will be followed by other similar initiatives.
Rome, 21 June 2023
