Posted on 27 May 2015
From 3 to 6 June a conference will be held in Messina to mark the anniversary of the inter-ministerial meeting of the six founding states of the CECA, held in the Sicilian city in 1955. On that occasion, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, West Germany, Belgium and Italy signed the so-called "Messina Declaration", in which they enunciated their intention to create a European Atomic Energy Community and to carry on the path of forging a common market. The statement gave impetus to the process of European integration, opening the way for the signing of the Treaties of Rome in 1957, which established the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community.
In order to remember and revive the spirit of unity of the Conference of Messina, the Italian Council of the European Movement (CIME) and the city of Messina have organized an event in which the new challenges faced by Europe today will be analyzed. The first day will be attended by representatives of the countries involved in the Messina Conference in 1955, and a representative of the Italian Government and the Italian Parliament. In addition, Gaetano Silvestri, President Emeritus of the Italian Constitutional Court, will deliver a report on the "Europe of rights", while Enrique Baron Crespo, President of the European Foundation for Information Society, will address the audience with an opening lecture.
The Historical Archives of the European Union will participate in the event with the exhibition "Sicily and Europe", which will open on Thursday June 4, in the presence of Sandro Gozzi, State Secretary at the Presidency in the Italian Government in charge of European Affairs, and representatives of the signatory countries of the "declaration of Messina". The exhibition will commemorate this important moment of the process of European integration using several documents held by the Archives that describe the complex relationship between Sicily and the rest of Europe from a political point of view, and, above all, from a socio-economic and cultural perspective. The exhibition will be enhanced with images from the Alinari Archives and documents from the Historical Archives of the Presidency of the Italian Republic and the Historical Archives of the Italian Senate.
During the following days, experts such as Roger Heackok (Univ. Berzeit), Michele Nardelli (Permanent Observatory on the Balkans) and Filippo Miraglia (ARCI National Manager migrants), and politicians as Giusy Nicolini, mayor of Lampedusa, and Accorinti Renato, mayor of the City of Messina, will explore from different perspectives the management of migratory flows in the Mediterranean and the resulting conflicts and policies, as well as the related security issues. The workshop sessions will conclude with an historical study in which teachers and researchers of the University of Messina will analyze in hindsight the changes since 1955 to present.
More information here