During the celebrations related to the European Cooperation Day, the Management Authority of the Italy-Tunisia Program organized the conference «Sicile et Tunisie: opportunités pour la coopération maritime transfrontalière et perspectives d’avenir». The event took place in Mazara del Vallo, last October 5th, as part of the Blue Sea Land, Expo of the Mediterranean, Africa and the Middle East, dedicated to the excellence of the food, drinks and technology fields. The Blue Sea Land edition in 2018, now in its sixth year, showed the presence of well over 150,000 visitors.
More than 40 delegations from Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, about 100 between the conferences and meetings that took place during the event, 600 the students that collaborated, through the alternating school work, at the organization of the event, many contacts, through inter-company and institutional meetings, have been established in the context of agreements concluded in various sectors: fisheries, environment, scientific and social research.
More than 100 participants attended the conference which was chaired by the Director of the Program Department of the Sicilian Region, Program Management Authority, which opened the proceedings by providing information on cross-border cooperation between Italy and Tunisia and providing the first information on the scenarios of the new programming 2021-2027.
The European Cooperation day aims to make European citizens aware of the results achieved with the resources made available with the European cohesion policy. In this regard, the conference was a valuable opportunity to exchange information on future perspectives and on the current phase of the Italy-Tunisia 2014-2020 program, which is engaged in the second phase of the nomination for its first call for project.
The event was attended by Mr. Moez Sinaoui, Ambassador of the Republic of Tunisia to Italy, who highlighted the effectiveness of the first cycle of the program which, during the period 2007-2013, saw the realization of 31 initiatives “because it was a concrete program that directly affected cities, territories and civil society “.
Following the speeches of Mr Gianpaolo Simone and of Mr Vincenzo Petruso, as representatives of the Program Management Authority, have been described the objectives of the EU Neighbourhood Policy and the Italy-Tunisia 2014-2020 ENPI CBC Program.
Then, Mr. Fethi Ben Mimoun, representative of the Tunisian National Authority recalled how the cross-border cooperation between Italy and Tunisia had developed considerably in recent years especially in the field of economic, social and cultural relations, to the point of making Italy the first trade partner of Tunisia, and Mr. Flavio Lovisolo, head of the office of AICS (Agenzia Italiana per la Cooperazione allo Sviluppo) in Tunis, described the basic lines of Italian cooperation in Tunisia, active in the country since the 1980s. Finally, Mr. Rosario Sapienza, coordinator of the Joint Technical Secretariat, illustrated the characteristics of the first tender notice, with a focus on the thematic targets open to financing and on future prospects and opportunities of the Italy and Tunisia Program scheduled for 2019 and for the future.
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