Italian and foreign historians, researchers and students will progressively be given access to ever-more recent diplomatic documents. Through a ministerial decree, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Paolo Gentiloni, has shortened the time required to access official documents from 50 to 30 years. The decree represents a further significant step towards making the activities of the Foreign Ministry fully transparent by opening the Diplomatic Historic Archive, following up on Prime Minister Renzi’s instructions to authorise access to consult over 2,000 documents on the massacres of the1969-1984 period and on Moro’s murder.
The archive material relative to the years 1965-1985, which could not be consulted up to now, will gradually be made available as they are put in order by the Ministry’s Historic Archive, which will publish the inventory on the www.esteri.it website. In the perspective of giving ample access to sources, the Farnesina is also predisposing a new collection of Italian diplomatic documents up to the beginning of the ‘90s. Furthermore, the study room of the Archive has been completely refurbished in order to offer an efficient and comfortable place in which to do research work. “These initiatives are part of a project to upgrade the historical and diplomatic records which includes launching a portal dedicated to foreign policy and history. Documents and images on the Italian diplomacy, including free access to the digital version of all the 120 volumes containing the Italian diplomatic documents published up to now, will also be offered on exhibitions displaying material belonging to the Historical and Diplomatic Archive,” said the Foreign Ministry’s Secretary-General, Michele Valensise.
