Ventotene Europa Festival 2022

For peace.

With this slogan, the sixth edition of the

an event that the association La Nuova Europa organizes every year with students from all European countries on the island that gave birth to the Federalist Manifesto.

This year the event is dedicated to the need to quickly reach a truce for a lasting peace after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the outbreak of the conflict.

on the day of Europe Day and the return to the island of the restored copy of the Ventotene Manifesto,

focuses on this aspect to the young people present at the Ventotene Europa Festival.

“Faced with the invasion of Ukraine, the values ​​contained in the Ventotene Manifesto are more relevant than ever.

The return home of the first copy of the Manifesto is an opportunity to renew our commitment to freedom, democracy and peace.

We must remember the role played by federalist idealism in the construction of a European awareness to which we must add the pragmatism that was at the basis of the creation of the first European institutions and their evolution ”.

Draghi also wished the fifty high school students between the ages of 16 and 18 who have been discussing each other since Sunday 8 May to draft a document on peace, which will then be delivered to the President of the European Commission

Among the guests of the event - scheduled from 8 to 13 May - the Minister of Foreign Affairs

, the Undersecretary for European Policies

, the former President of the Council and of the European Commission

, the co-president of Scientific Committee of the Conference on Europe

, the head of the Commission Representation in Italy, Antonio Parenti, the Commissioner for the island of Santo Stefano Silvia Costa.

Young people from Rome, Paris and Berlin and guests from culture and the world of information, the citizens of the island and all participants in the Ventotene Europa Festival this year will have the opportunity to admire the restored copy of the first edition up close. mimeographed of the Ventotene Manifesto, which the European Institute of Fiesole donated to the Ventotenese administration.

It is an extraordinary historical document, drawn up in August 1941 under the fascist confinement by Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi, brought out of the island thanks to the intervention of Ursula Hirschmann and then edited in its final edition by Eugenio Colorni and whose meaning takes on even more today, in these dramatic times, a symbolic and prophetic value.

In his video message

he underlined the importance of the role of young people in the construction of Europe, especially in such difficult times where the response of the European Union is fundamental, against the pandemic as well as against the Russian aggression of Ukraine.

"So today we are all more aware not only of the importance but also of the need for a Europe that is cohesive internally and strong in speaking externally with one voice, a Europe that is more than the sum of its parts. Initiatives such as the School of Europe - said the Minister of European Affairs - contributes to making this vision a reality, consolidating the feeling of shared belonging. The citizens are at the basis of the idea of ​​Europe, and the European Union is built starting from communities, neighborhoods, cities ".

For Di Maio it is necessary,

stressed the need for the EU to choose "new forms of integration, on energy, on the management of solidarity and migratory flows, on a new economic governance to ensure that investments such as the Next Generation Eu also mean a new dimension of what is the effort of competitiveness, productivity and social cohesion that the continent must have in today's globalized world ".

instead he spoke of the importance of the role of youth integration and study, recalling a passage from the reform proposals received from the Conference on Europe. "I would like to mention a specific proposal only as an example of what happened, number 47, which aims that member states of the European Union: "focus on the specific needs of young people in all relevant policies in order to obtain the best possible conditions for them on study and work and to start an independent life while involving them in life democratic and in the decision-making process also at the European level. "

The head of the Representation of the EU Commission in Italy,

, finally highlighted the importance of the European response to the pandemic with the Next Generation Eu: "today more than ever Europe must count on young people who are trained, who know Europe, who are aware of the changes that Europe needs young people willing to carry forward the future of Europe.

The first day of the Ventotene Europa Festival ended with a concert for peace by the Italian-Turkish musician Francesco Taskayali.