The states general of the smaller marine islands have departed. A three-day event that will see the presence of numerous Ministers and speakers sitting around a table to discuss the future of the Islands. A commitment made by the Minister for Civil Protection and Sea Policies Nello Musumeci with the inhabitants of the islands is to concretely address the problems of island realities. We discuss transport, healthcare, depopulation, infrastructure, emergencies, tourism and the future. A first step to address the needs of the islands with full knowledge of the facts at a government level.
The summit sees the participation of nine ministers, deputy ministers, undersecretaries, the vice-president of the European Commission, Raffaele Fitto, representatives of the Regions, local administrations and port authorities. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will intervene with a video message. Around eighty speakers will discuss the critical issues and potential of these territories to produce a multidisciplinary analysis and identify immediate and structural measures.
Musumeci: “Reverse the course”
«Reverse the course» on the smaller islands so that «they are no longer just a holiday destination but places as independent as possible from the mainland, for some services and infrastructural facilities”: this was stated by the Minister for Civil Protection and the Sea Nello Musumeci, opening the States General of the smaller islands, scheduled until Sunday in Lipari. For Musumeci, «a process of both urban and territorial regeneration» is necessary which transforms the islands into «centres and study and research centers, where students can stay all year round, even in winter.” «For this reason», explained the minister, «the government has in the meantime thought about the redevelopment of public infrastructures, with 2 tenders from the Casa Italia Department being closed, with an unprecedented financial allocation for ports and public buildings, and we are imagining other tenders».
Fitto: “The EU commission is working on their relaunch”
“At a European level we have over 2,300 islands, over 20 million Europeans living on the islands and this is certainly a very indicative figure to help understand the concrete attention, at a European level, that is given to these territories. Numbers that must represent a complete level of attention, if it is true, as it is, that three member states are islands and that there are islands that have a size much larger than member states”. Raffaele Fitto, executive vice-president of the EU Commission, said this, speaking in a video message to the States General of the Minor Marine Islands.
“We need differentiated policies, different interventions. In recent months, the European Commission is carrying out a medium-term review of the cohesion policy programmes, to have an effective tool available capable of identifying different solutions to the problems of our territories”, explained the minister. Fitto recalled that the European Commission is working to identify “specific strategies, an agenda for cities, for internal areas and at the same time a major operation to relaunch the role of the islands and therefore a strategy for the islands”.