Good morning,
it was a great pleasure for me to welcome Their Majesties King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain to the Quirinale Palace.
And their presence today in Rome and tomorrow in Naples – the second stop in this very important State Visit – is an honour for Italy and for our Republic.
I will be happy to go to Naples myself to attend the ceremony to award the Honoris Causa doctorate to His Majesty by the University of Naples Federico II.
Furthermore, Naples is a clear reminder of the historic relationship between Spain and Italy: deep-rooted relations capable of embracing every aspect of ordinary life, spanning across the economic, cultural and social spheres.
Indeed, in our talks, we just recalled how positive and dynamic is the scope of our cooperation, at government and parliamentary level and between our civil societies.
The speech that His Majesty is due to deliver before Parliament today not only emphasizes the democratic life of our Country but also the role of parliamentary diplomacy, which is particularly productive between Madrid and Rome.
No less relevant is the role played by our civil societies and the initiatives that unite them such as the Spain-Italy Dialogue Forum, whose latest edition was recently hosted in Barcelona.
Close to 300,000 Italian citizens have chosen Spain as their adopted Country. They have chosen Spain as the country in which to live.
It is a community that is integrated into the fabric of Spanish society and that contributes to continually tighten our relations. To support them, the seat of the Consulate General was recently opened in Madrid.
Our economic relations are equally excellent. Evidence of this is the trade volume recorded last year, in 2023, of up to 66 billion euros.
Tomorrow His Majesty will open an important business summit bringing together Spanish and Italian companies to discuss industrial and commercial relations, with a special focus on infrastructure, energy, the environment, industry, defence and technology.
During our talks, we especially focused on Europe. We shared our reflections on the future that our Union must have in an increasingly insidious global context.
The new legislature and the new Commission are called upon to perform a task in the Union – at the same time very challenging and inescapable – to comprehensively reform the Union, both in terms of the decision-making process and of relaunching its competitiveness, first and foremost by completing the single market and the financial system.
Said reform must resolutely make headway towards a full-fledged European common defence system.
Of course, focus was placed also on two other key issues for the life of the Union: the enlargement – a geostrategic priority of the Union – including not only the candidate Countries but also the full implementation of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum.
Spain’s and Italy’s position in the Mediterranean leads us to share the same feelings also on the issue of climate change, the effects of which are well known to both Spain and Italy.
During our meeting, I renewed my own and Italy’s condolences to His Majesty for the casualties in the Region of Valencia, which was hard struck by the devastation that Italy too unfortunately knows well.
Ours is a Region that we have in common, fragile and exposed. This is why we must work together to prepare, mitigate and especially expedite the fight against climate change on the road towards an effective global energy transition.
On these aspects, Spain and Italy can set a tangible example of responsibility and cooperation.
This Region of ours is also shaken by what is happening in the Middle East: a crisis that involves us directly, just like the one in Ukraine.
We also recalled our joint action and our common attention for Latin America, a continent to which both our Countries are especially bound.
And this very welcome two-day State Visit by Their Majesties will offer us the opportunity to exchange opinions on the many aspects and issues that our two peoples have at heart.
Also for this reason I would like to thank His Majesty for the visit, for the attention paid to our Country and for the friendship ties between Spain and Italy.
Allow me to once again extend my greetings to Their Majesties, the King and Queen of Spain.
