The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Angelino Alfano, is scheduled to attend the workshop “The European Perspective of the Western Balkans and the Summit Process” organised by the University District of Gorizia on the theme “The Trieste Summit between Continuity and Innovation”.
He said: “I am very happy to be able to dialogue in Gorizia – a city that has experienced divisions but that has also known how to settle them from the perspective of a common belonging to Europe – with all those who have the relationship with Western Balkans at heart and especially with university students, who represent our future. With the Trieste Summit, we want to act to build a bridge with the Western Balkans, boost their aspirations to unify with the rest of Europe, create the conditions whereby the European perspective might not be an abstract and far-fetched concept.” Minister Alfano went on to say: “We must work to achieve a definitive peace and to permanently harbour the Western Balkans within the EU and its values. Italy can and wants to do this as a Country that is a friend of the Balkans and has deep knowledge of the region for historic, geographic and human reasons. It is not by chance that we are at the centre of significant international cooperation initiatives such as the Central European Initiative (CEI) and the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative (AIA), which aim precisely at strengthening the regional dimension that we have particularly at heart.”
