PRESS RELEASE
A New Mediterranean Perspective
Cooperating on Sustainability to Prevent War
March 29, 2022
Rome, March 29, 2022. In light of current war in Ukraine, the Center for Higher Education and Science Diplomacy on Sustainability planned in the Ponza Island opens new hopes for Mediterranean youth and women cooperating to prevent conflicts in our region. This is the conclusion international institutions’ representatives and civil society organisations’ experts reached on the occasion of the international conference that the Italian Network for the Euro-Med Dialogue RIDE organized in hybrid form yesterday at the Spazio Europa Conference Room of the European Commission’s and Parliament’s offices in Rome.
In the name of cooperation and brotherhood between different Mediterranean collective identities, the aim of the initiative is to develop the planned Centre as an emblem of culture and peace, as well as of environmental protection, identitary cuisine, and of fight against all types of discrimination.
The participation of both the Israeli and the Palestinian ALF Heads of their respective civil society national networks (HoNs) within the Euro-Med Anna Lindh Foundation (ALF), as well as of several institutional representatives, confirms once again the RIDE constant commitment and real desire for peaceful diplomacy, uniting peoples and communities in conflict, in cooperation with the RIDE member Mediterranean Perspectives. The Turkish, Jordanian, Moroccan, Palestinian, Israeli, Egyptian, German, and Italian HoNs have launched together the project to convert the Turtledoves Villa in Ponza, a building belonging to the Lazio Region, into an Euro-Med meeting place at the center of the Mediterranean Sea, aimed primarily at Mediterranean youth and women, bringing back to light a publicly owned location left in ruins since 2008.
All efforts have being focused on defining the new shape and function of the proposed Centre through a number of discussions concerning the potential extraordinary usefulness of this place in the context of international science diplomacy involving civil society organizations, sharing as much as possible the projected goals with the Mediterranean communities, including a planned consultation of the national Parliaments thanks to the cooperation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean-PAM, whose President Hon. Gennaro Migliore took part in the conference encouraging the idea of the planned Centre in Ponza as a symbol of Altiero Spinelli’s European dream who from 1937 to 1939 was confined in this island at the centre of the Mediterranean Sea.
The Lazio Region organized a technical check in cooperation with the RIDE representatives at the Turtledoves Villa in Ponza on February 24, 2022, in order to prepare the necessary documentation for the actual implementation of the project, devoted to circular economy, climate change, and food security, with an innovative Euro-Med identitary restaurant.
Related links:
Event flyer: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cbc64p8suA9/?utm_medium=copy_link
Website: : https://ride.mediper.eu/it/
Facebook: : https://www.facebook.com/RIDEAPS
Previous initiatives:
The Center for Higher Education and Science Diplomacy at the Turtledoves Villa in Ponza
A New Mediterranean Perspective
International Conference in hybrid form
March 29, 2022
11.00-11.20 Institutional Greetings:
Gabriele Annis, DGUE, Italian Foreign Ministry
Carlo Corazza, Head, European Parliament Office in Italy
Francesco Ferraiuolo, Mayor of Ponza, RIDE member (message)
Gennaro Migliore, President, Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean-PAM (message)
Antonio Parenti, Head, European Commission’s Representation in Italy
11.20- 12.15: ALF representatives discuss with Paolo Camilletti (Expert in landscape-environmental affairs, Municipality of Ponza)
Fadwah Khawaja al-Shaer, Jerusalem Center for Women, Palestinian ALF HoN
Samuel (Muli) Peleg, Oranim College of Education International School, Israeli ALF HoN
Desirée Quagliarotti, Center for National Research-CNR in Napoli (RIDE member), Italian Representative at the ALF Advisory Council
Necdet Sağlam, Association of Civil Society and Development Institute, Turkish ALF Co–HoN
12.15- 13.00 Open exchange with Giuseppe Provenzano (UfM Expert on Higher Education)
Stefano Antonelli, Italy-Emirates cooperation project, with a message from Dina Storey, Head of sustainability operations (United Arab Emirates)
Salvatore Capasso, full professor of Economic Policy, University of Naples Parthenope, Center for National Research-CNR in Napoli (RIDE member)
Federico Cinquepalmi, Ministry of University and Research MUR, Sapienza University
Sandro Dernini, Founder and coordinator, Forum on Mediterranean Food Cultures
Martina Desole, EnoLL Director
Nizar Ramadan, Editorial Director, Kmetro 0 (RIDE media partner)
Andrea Sonnino, Professor of Ecology and Sustainability, Universitas Mercatorum
Giovanni Stanghellini, PRIMA Italian Secretariat Santa Chiara Lab, Siena University
Chairs:
Enrico Molinaro, Secretary General, Italian Network for the Euro-Mediterranean Dialogue–RIDE, President, Mediterranean Perspectives
Greta Spreafico, Assistant Coordinator, Anna Lindh Foundation- ALF in Italy
