The Italian Embassy in Berlin hosted a reception to celebrate the symposium entitled “Germany and Italy: Prospects for a Closer Political Cooperation”, which opened with remarks by Ambassador Armando Varricchio.
The event – co-organized by the Friedrich-Erbert-Stiftung (FES) and the Centro Studi di Politica Internazionale (CESPI), the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), and the Politische Italien Forschung (PIFO) with the aim of stimulating an in-depth discussion on Italian-German relations in an already bilaterally intense and positive dynamic period only a few months before the intergovernmental summit scheduled for October – was attended by a delegation of Italian parliamentarians headed by Piero Fassino, the President of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chamber of Deputies.
In his contribution, Ambassador Varricchio underscored that the relations between Italy, traditionally close and widely diversified, are going through a particularly dynamic period that confirm the two Countries’ joint commitment to develop an Action Plan based on the ambitious target of establishing an ever-tighter collaboration. It’s a “special” relationship – Fassino said – which makes “Europe stronger and an extraordinary place of freedoms and rights”.
The participants in the event included several members of the Bundestag, including Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker, Chair of the Committee on Legal Affairs of the Bundestag, and Axel Schäfer, Chair of the German-Italian Parliamentary Friendship Group in the Bundestag; Ambassador Michele Valensise, president of Villa Vigoni (German-Italian Centre for the European Dialogue).
