The visit to Madrid by Elisabetta Belloni, the Secretary-General of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accompanied by the Director General for the European Union, Giuseppe Buccino, aims to pave the way for stronger cooperation between Italy and Spain in the sectors of strategic interest for the two Countries. Indeed, European policies were at the top of the agenda of the talks that the Italian delegation had with the Secretary of State for European Affairs of the Spanish Foreign Ministry, Jorge Toledo, which focused on strengthening bilateral cooperation in the sectors of common interest in which Italy and Spain can jointly influence and mould EU decisions and policies.
The other issues on the agenda included the migration dossier, seen from the common perspective of frontier Countries of the European Union and of the experience acquired by Italy and Spain in their relationship with the African Countries of origin and transit; boosting Europe’s common defence, also in order to respond to the threats coming from the Southern front; completing the Economic and Monetary Union and the negotiations over the next EU Multi-annual Financial Framework, with the aim of bringing the two Countries’ positions closer together. The talks also focused on economic and commercial bilateral relations in the light of the relevant and consolidated presence of Italian businesses on the Spanish market and vice versa.
Present at the bilateral talks were also the Italian Ambassador to Spain, Stefano Sannino, the Spanish Director General of Bilateral Relations with EU Countries, Juan López-Herrera Sánchez, and the Director General for the European Union Affairs, José Pascual Marco Martínez.
Ambassador Belloni also had the opportunity of meeting with representatives of Italian businesses in Spain and to address a greeting to the Embassy personnel and the representatives of other Italian institutions in Madrid.
