Festival of Diplomacy to focus on growth and inequality

(AGI) Rome, Oct 20 - The Sixth Festival of Diplomacy opens inRome on Thursday with a packed programme of 50 events over ninedays on highly topical issues and with the cooperation of morethan 70 embassies, seven universities and numerous scientificpartners. The meetings will revolve around the theme of"Inclusive growth, inequalities and political imbalances". Theevent will be opened by Giorgio Bartolomucci, Secretary Generalof the Festival, and Giampiero Massolo, President of theScientific Committee. This will be followed by a dialoguebetween Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Italian oil and gas giant Eni,and Roberto Napoletano, editor of the newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore,on "Challenges and opportunities for Italian industry in theglobal scenario". Many prominent guests have been invited todiscuss the central theme of the event, including formerPresident of Italy Giorgio Napolitano, Undersecretary of StateMarco Minniti, Director of European border agency Frontex,Fabrice Leggeri, as well as the astrophysicist Hubert Reeves,sociologist Saskia Sassen, economist Enrico Giovannini andProfessor of Discipline in International and Public Affairs,Yasmine Ergas. They will be joined by many ambassadors andsenior representatives of the European Commission. TheIstituto Superiore di Sanita' (Higher Health Institute) willlook at the very current topic of "Migratory Phenomena andInternational Preventative Medicine". The programme alsoincludes subjects of a more economic and technologicalcharacter, with a speech from the President of the AeroSpaceand Defence Industries Association of Europe and GeneralManager of Italian hi-tech giant Finmeccanica, Mauro Moratti,and a special focus on energy policies of the African continentwith the ambassadors of SADC area countries. Space will also begiven to the best Italian innovative start-ups, which will meetwith the embassies of Australia, Brazil, Canada, the UK, Chile,the U.S., Switzerland, France, Israel, and Poland, in order tohelp them access foreign markets. There will be anexploration of the geopolitical scenarios related to the G20 in2015 in Turkey with the Turkish ambassador Aydin Adnan Sezginand Undersecretary at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, PierPaolo Baretta. Gary Sick, the key White House aide for Iranduring the 1979 revolution and the hostage negotiations, willtalk about the difficult diplomatic relations between the U.S.and Iran. The role of women in the resolution ofinternational conflicts will be discussed, 15 years after UNSecurity Council Resolution 1325, by the NATO SecretaryGeneral's Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security,Marriet Schuurman, and the first woman dean of the NATO DefenceCollege based in Rome, Daria Daniels Skodnik. After the successof the previous edition, the Big Trial returns to the Teatrodei Dioscuri at the Quirinale presidential palace. This year itis devoted to the United Nations on its 70th anniversary, withFranco Frattini speaking for the defence, Federigo Argentierifor the prosecution, witnesses Guido Lenzi, Angelo Panebiancoand Carmen Lasorella, with Ferdinando Imposimato as Presidentof the Court. The Festival of Diplomacy will host a curious andinteresting analysis of the language of 20th century dress withtalks by the CEO of Gattinoni2, Stefano Dominella, and the headof the Institutional Communications of the Department ofInformation Security, Paolo Scotto di Castelbianco. Accompaniedby music from the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia, there willalso be a talk on food as a determining factor in the creationof a collective European identity by Massimo Montanari,Professor of Medieval History and the History of Food at theUniversity of Bologna; Guido Fabiani, Councillor for EconomicDevelopment and Productive Activities of Lazio region; andAndrea Olivero, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Food andForestry Policies. The event, which will consist of a series ofmeetings and lectures at various institutional and academicvenues, has been organised with the patronage of the ForeignMinistry, the European Commission Representation in Italy andthe European Parliament. (AGI). .