Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain

09/15/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/16/2021 05:43

Spain and Italy launch mechanism to monitor bilateral summits

The State Secretary for the European Union, Juan González-Barba, and the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Italy, Ettore Francesco Sequi, held a meeting today in Madrid on the mechanism to monitor the commitments taken on by Spain and Italy at the recent 19th edition of the bilateral summit, held in Palma on 25 November 2020.

The monitoring mechanism helps to comply with the agreements made at the bilateral summits and provides continuity to the dialogue and cooperation between the different ministerial departments in the period between the holding of successive editions. This is all with a view to achieving specific results on bilateral cooperation projects.

Today's meeting was held in a hybrid format. Spanish representatives from the Presidency of the Government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, the Ministry of Work and Social Economy and the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge met in person together with Italian representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Work and Social Policies, and the Ministry of Ecological Transition. In addition, representatives from the other ministerial departments that took part in the latest summit in Palma joined in by video-conference.

The participants highlighted that bilateral cooperation boosts national and European efforts to further develop the digital and ecological transition of our economies, while also stressing their social dimension. They indicated that Italy and Spain are the beneficiaries of almost half of the funding mobilised by the EU for the Recovery Plan for the Next Generation EU. Accordingly, our two countries are under a great responsibility to ensure their success to build a more ecological, more digital and more resilient Europe.

The meeting between State Secretary González-Barba and Secretary-General Sequi also allowed them to look in-depth at such issues as the Pact on Migration and Asylum, the Southern Neighbourhood, the Conference on the Future of Europe and the existing synergies between the Recovery and Resilience Plans of Spain and Italy.

The meeting allowed for continuing the reinforcement of bilateral relations at all levels and to determine the main lines of work with a view to the upcoming Spain-Italy Summit.

-NON OFFICIAL TRANSLATION-