Event report

Context, FINALITY, SUBJECT AND STRUCTURE/METODOLOGY OF THE EVENT| The Ventotene seminar aims to be a arena of debate and training both for those who have recently come into contact with European federalism and for the most run-out militants. The seminar takes place over a week in which a session takes place in the morning and one in the afternoon where speakers take part and the children have the opportunity to discuss the topics presented in groups and to ask them questions or comments. This year, during the afternoon sessions, each group prepared a presentation on the ideas to be proposed at the Conference on the Future of Europe. Number AND TYPE OF PARTICIPANTI| 100 young people belonging to or sympathisers of the European Federalist Youth from all over Italy. Average age: 20 years old, aged between 16 and 30 years, of which 40 % males 60 % females. The young people came from North, Central and South Italy. Main MATERIES OF DISCUSSION DURING THE LABORATORS/SEMINARY/ASSEMBLEE| The discussion focused on the institutional changes that the EU needs to address in order to equip itself with effective tools to solve its main problems: economic crisis, lack of foreign and defence policy, climate crisis, attacks on the rule of law at home etc... Main IDEAS SUBJECT OF THE PARTICIPANTS DURING THE EVENT, DISCORS AND ARGOMENTS SHARE or debated THAT IDEAS| Participants highlighted the impossibility of reforming the EU institutions in the federal sense, without which European civilisation cannot deal with the problems facing it. The GENERAL ATMOSFERA AND THE FOLLOW-UP ATTESO| Ventotene has always been the place where the federalists contaminate themselves with that intellectual vivacity that was Spinelli’s and, at the same time, live a very rich experience thanks to which they form as militants ready to fight to make the European Federation. Written SUMMARY| 80 years after the drafting of the Ventotene Manifesto, the 40th edition of the federalist training seminar organised by the Institute of Federalist Studies “Altiero Spinelli” every year with the Lazio Region, the Province of Latina and the Municipality of Ventotene, and the collaboration of the European Federalist Movement and the European Federalist Youth, was held on the Pontine Island from August 29th to September 3 rd. This year was a special edition of the seminar, with the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Manifesto “For a free and united Europe” opened by the dialogue of seminarians with the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella. Following was the inauguration of the 40th Ventotene Seminar, with the participation of the participants in the national seminar and the international seminar (coming to the 37th edition), moderated by Giorgio Anselmi, President of the Spinelli Institute, with the institutional greetings of Gerardo Santomauro, Mayor of Ventotene, Daniele Leodori, Vice-President of the Lazio Region, Carlo Medici, President of the Province of Latina, and the speeches of Fabio Massimo Castaldo, Vice-President of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell i Fontelles, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, Brando Benifei, President of the Spinelli Group of the European Parliament, Sandro Gozi, President of the UEF and European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, Co-President of the Executive Committee of the Conference on the Future of Europe. At the end of the session, the award ceremony of two awards took place, with the award by Fabrizio Saggio of the annual “Antonio Saggio” Prize (joined the 7th edition) to Matteo Annunziata and by Mario Leone, Director of the Spinelli Institute, with the reading of a message from the family, of the scholarship “Luigi Vittorio Majocchi” (first edition) to Alessandro Ponsi. The afternoon ended with a visit to the tombs of Spinelli and Bolis at the cemetery of Ventotene, with the participation of Borrell, Castaldo, Benifei, Verhofstadt and Devesa who gave an intervention in memory. The first day of formation (August 30) opened with the morning relations held by Pier Virgilio Dastoli, President of the European Movement in Italy, Luisa Trumellini, Secretary MFE (“The legacy of the Ventotene Manifesto and the movements for the unity of Europe”) and speeches on “The European Federalists and the Confino di Ventotene” curated by Mario Leone and Marilena Giovannelli, Director of State Archives of Latina (on video). As in the following days, the working groups and the plenary debate were followed. In the afternoon the reports were held by Paolo Acunzo, Vice-President MFE, and Mariasophia Falcone, Resp. GFE International Office ("Federalism as a Response to the Challenges of Globalisation: from international anarchy to common institutions"). The exhibition "Europe and Europeans 1950-2020: 70th Anniversary of the Schuman Declaration" by Leslie Hernández Nova, EU Historical Archives. On 31 August, the reports were held in the morning by Giorgio Anselmi, President MFE, and Antonio Argenziano, Secretary GFE (“Federalism and the Great Ideologies”); in addition, at the end, the official presentation ceremony of the celebratory stamp dedicated to the Ventotene Manifesto was held on the 80th anniversary of its drafting with Poste Italiane. Matteo Gori, President GFE, and Giorgia Sorrentino, Resp. Office of the GFE Emilia-Romagna debate (“EU tax policy and the reform perspective”). The third training day (September 1) was opened by Giulia Rossolillo, Executive Bureau UEF, and Sofia Viviani, Resp. Sections GFE ("Federal State: principles and institutions'); at the end, a video-presentation of the book “Vento d’Europa” by the author Martina Ciai in collaboration with Francesco Sanguineti. In the afternoon the reports were held by Marco Celli, Vice-Secretary MFE, and Francesca Torre, Resp. GFE Communication (“The technological revolution and the ecological transformation of the economy”). The morning of 2 September was organised in collaboration between Istituto Affari Internazionale, Centro Studi sul Federalismo, Fondazione Luigi Einaudi and Istituto Spinelli, in a double session ("From Ventotene to the future of the European Union") on "The external dimension: the EU in a changing world“with interventions by Nicoletta Pirozzi, Resp. Programme”EU, Politics and Institutions“— IAI, and Flavio Brugnoli, Director CSF, and on”The External Dimension: Next Generation EU and beyond" with contributions by Emma Galli, Director of Scientific Committee Einaudi Foundation, and Roberto Ricciuti, Area Economics and Social Sciences Foundation Einaudi. In the afternoon they reported Stefano Castagnoli, Vice-President MFE, and Diletta Alese, Executive Board JEF Europe (“Federalism as revolutionary political militancy”. Finally, on Friday, September 3, the closing session of the seminar was held with a round table on “The Conference on the Future of Europe” chaired by Mario Leone, who, after the institutional greetings of Gerardo Santomauro, Mayor of Ventotene, and Domenico Vulcano, Vice-President of the Province of Latina, gave a reading of the message of the President of the Lazio Region Nicola Zingaretti and handed over the annual “Journal Prize” Altiero Spinelli to Tiziana Di Simone, journalist and correspondent RAI. With a video-message speech by Paolo Gentiloni, European Commissioner for the Economy, took the floor in the debate of the session Vito Borrelli, Vice-Director of the EU Commission in Italy, Silvia Costa, former European Parliamentary and Extraordinary Commissioner of Government for the recovery of the prison of Santo Stefano, Salvatore De Meo, European Parliament. As a term of the working groups, the participants presented their ideas for the Conference on the Future of Europe. The PROPOSTS THAT THE PARTICIPANTS HAVE ACCEPTED TO PRESENT| In addition to the written proposals made in each of the discussion groups, the participants agreed to support the following ideas presented by the MFE: — For a true European democracy: abolishing the right of veto and giving direct powers to the European Parliament in taxation and foreign policy — There can be no real European democracy without an autonomous EU fiscal power. To this is added the support for the same ideas in English as the UEF: — For a true European democracy: Abolish the right of veto and assign direct powers to the European Parliament in taxation and foreign policy; — For a true European democracy: There can be no true European democracy without an autonomous EU fiscal power; — Our federal Europe: Sovereign and democratic. To conclude, the participants decided to support the ideas of the European Federalist Youth (JEF) published in the European democracy area by its President Leonie Martin: — A more democratic & effective EU: Stronger European Parliament; —Stronger Together: a democratic European Federation.