Last Tuesday, DIBA organized a hybrid event in collaboration with CCI France Italie – Camera di Commercio and PonteVia!, to launch a project celebrating the European Union, promoting its core democratic values and fostering intra-EU trade.More than 100 participants from the EU diplomatic services, Italian public entities, international chambers of commerce and from the Rome business, banking and advisory sectors gathered at the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (KNIR) and many others participated online.
The evening, moderated by DIBA President Angela Mannaerts, opened with the presentation of the project and its Committee of Experts consisting of Ambassado
r Giorgio Novello, La Sapienza University Professors Emma Galli and Francesco Clementi Vice-President of Arval Service Lease Spa Denis Delespaul and Valeria Giaccari, Managing Director of Orienta S.p.A.
The Experts subsequently discussed proposals to strengthen European integration and foster increasingly effective cooperation among Member States submitted by several delegations, which included also the proposal to introduce Grandparents’ Day in all EU Member States and to promote it in the States that already celebrate this day. Charles Lansdorp, founder of the Grandparents’ Day Foundation, explained the need for increasing the family ties, protecting the elderly from loneliness, passing on values withing generations and to honor the elder generations that built up Europe after the war.
Filippo Giabbani, Executive Director of Invest in Tuscany, illustrated Tuscany’s willingness to contribute and its already existing student exchange programmes. DIBA Honorary President and author Rosita Steenbeek ended the conference with a heartfelt tribute.
The evening concluded with a walking dinner in the enchanting KNIR gardens, where guests enjoyed a multicultural tasting experience offered by several partner organisations and served by volunteer-students.
A sincere thank you goes to speakers, participants, the group of volunteer students, and to KNIR Director Ing. Alessio Larcinese and his team, for their invaluable support, which contributed to the success of the evening. We also appreciated the presence of many DIBA members, who travelled from various parts of Italy to attend the event in Rome, including Emanuele Pirazzoli, Honorary Consul of the Netherlands in Sicily.
DIBA is preparing a project report which includes a transformation, performed with the support of the Experts, of the submitted proposals into concrete initiatives and such report will be send soon to the participants and the other interested parties.
