On 23 May, on the 30th anniversary of the Capaci bombing, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, alongside the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior, is organising a working session (as part of the commemorations organised by the Falcone Foundation in Palermo) entitled: “The global vocation of Giovanni Falcone’s thought: the international dimension of the fight against the mafia”.
The event is part of the legal and security diplomacy action promoted by Italy and aims at enhancing Italy’s commitment in multilateral and bilateral spheres for regulatory standardisation and capacity-building in the fight against corruption and organised crime. It will also provide an opportunity to review Italy’s main legal diplomacy and security initiatives, including the “Falcone Borsellino” programme, funded by the Farnesina and enforced by the IILA (Italo-Latin American Organisation), to ensure cooperation and technical assistance in matters concerning justice, police the rule of law in Latin American and Caribbean countries.
The political dialogue session will include remarks by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Luigi Di Maio, the Minister of Justice, Marta Cartabia, the Minister of the Interior, Luciana Lamorgese, the Minister of Security Affairs of Paraguay, Cecilia Perez, and video messages by the President of the Republic of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, the Minister of Security of Argentina, Anibal Fernández, and the Minister of Security of Panama, Juan Manuel Pino.
The technical dialogue session, moderated by IILA Secretary-General Antonella Cavallari, will involve the heads of Italian and Latin American Authorities against Organised Crime. This session will feature remarks by Lamberto Giannini, Chief of Police – Director General of Public Security, Giovanni Melillo, appointed National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor, ANAC president Giuseppe Busia, Paola Severino, SNA President, the heads of the Customs and Monopolies Agency, Marcello Minenna, and of CONSIP, Cristiano Cannarsa, Teo Luzi and Giuseppe Zafarana, Commanders General of the Carabinieri and of the Finance Police, respectively. Several video messages from Latin America will be shown, including one by Monique Pariat, Director General of DG for Migration and Home Affairs.
The increasing cross-border nature of criminal phenomena and the negative impact of organised crime on democratic institutions have called for stronger international relations in this area in recent decades. Giovanni Falcone himself was among the first to realise that only concrete international cooperation could properly take on mobs. In fact, they are becoming increasingly transnational and are taking advantage of regulatory differences and different operating standards between countries. Judge Falcone was a pioneer in this regard, setting forth the guidelines of what would become Italian legal and security diplomacy, , twenty years later.
It is a indeed a guideline of our country’s foreign policy and global multilateral action. Today, diplomats, magistrates and security officials work together in a thick network of relations with the institutions of the countries where there is a greater or more pressing need for institutional reinforcement, new regulations and immediate and effective investigative collaboration.
Falcone’s legacy is a source of pride and responsibility for Italy, and not just with reference to future generations: today, that message calls for a renewed commitment in favour of the countries facing the organised crime-related challenges that we experienced 30 years ago.
