I read with interest the lead article by Ernesto Galli della Loggia on 26 February, on bureaucracy and merit. I found his considerations on recruitment and training well founded. Galli della Loggia is familiar with the structures of the State, its strong points and its weak points, and is better placed than others to assess their history. So I was surprised by his assessment that the Farnesina, has, he claims, “given in to these new times” in which “the criterion of merit has virtually disappeared”.
The Foreign Ministry’s recruitment system is inspired by the most rigorous respect for merit. Entrance is solely by public competition. The competitive exam to enter the diplomatic service is famously demanding (an aptitude test, five written tests – of which two in a foreign language –, and an oral exam on 12 topics). And it is famous for being designed in such a way as to avoid even the merest hint of favouritism. The Farnesina is almost obsessive in ensuring that the exams are conducted under conditions of anonymity, as anyone who has taken part – as candidate or examiner – can verify.
The best demonstration of this complete impartiality is the profile of the young people passing this demanding selection process every year. Young people who owe their access to a profession that continues to attract vital and promising energy purely to their talent, qualifications and preparation. There are no other criteria. The Farnesina is so proud of this merit-based mechanism that it has adopted it as a banner to attract the very best and broadest-based pool of possible recruits, irrespective of family or social factors or political leanings.
I am sure that if Galli della Loggia could observe our selection processes at first hand, like so many of his authoritative colleagues who have sat on the exam commissions over the years – in my year the commissioner for economics was Federico Caffè, and for the last intake it was Marcello Messori – he would acknowledge our serious commitment and praiseworthy results. The same results that we want to ensure not just during that strict initial filtering process but throughout our staff’s careers.
