On November 26 the Russian-Italian youth meeting was held online bringing together more than 70 participants, experts and honored guests.
The purpose was exchange of experience, discussion of topical issues and problems of interaction between Russian and Italian youth as well as prospects for the development of Russian-Italian youth dialogue.
Participants were 60 people. They were:
- leaders and project managers of youth public associations in Russia and Italy,
- representatives of relevant state authorities in the field of youth policy and youth work,
- young parliamentarians and members of youth parliaments,
- students and graduate students interested in the development of Russian-Italian cooperation,
- young compatriots living abroad.
The program of the event included a plenary session with the participation of officials from Russia and Italy as well as an interactive round table for representatives of youth public associations, political movements, students from both countries and Russian young compatriots living in Italy. Moderators of the Russian-Italian youth meeting were the Chairman of the National Youth Council of Russia Grigory Petushkov and the Chairman of the National Youth Council of Italy Maria Pisani.
The Russian Ambassador to Italy Sergey Razov, the Italian Ambassador to Russia Pasquale Terracciano, the Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation Elena Druzhinina, the Head of the Department of Youth Policy and General Civil Service of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic Flavio Siniscalchi spoke at the plenary session on issues of humanitarian cooperation between Russia and Italy. The Deputy Head of Rossotrudnichestvo Pavel Shevtsov, the Head of the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Rome Daria Pushkova, the Director of the Italian Institute of Culture in St. Petersburg Paola Choni, the President of the World Alumni Association Vladimir Chetiy also participated there.
During the session youth participants addressed officials and asked the most pressing questions. The issue was related to sanctions and their impact on Russian-Italian relations, visa facilitation for participants in international exchanges and interaction in environmental programs.
In the second part of the meeting youth representatives had the opportunity to share their experience in implementing projects in the field of Russian-Italian youth cooperation and to propose projects and ideas for inclusion in the Roadmap for youth cooperation between Russia and Italy.
From the Russian side projects were presented by the Head of the Directorate of International Programs of the "Volunteers of Victory" Yulia Karimova, the Chairman of the Council of Young Russian Compatriots of Italy Daria Byrsanu, the Vice-President for External Relations of the European Youth Parliament of Russia Vadim Kuznetsov, the Vice-President for Youth Affairs of the Cultural House Association "Origins" Oksana Cinquetti and others. From the Italian side the representative of youth wing of the Forza Italia Giovani party Michele Vitiello, the representative of the Association of April 25 Dario Coppi, the liaison officer of the Erasmus Students Network Martina Bo, the representative of the Youth Left Movement Andrea Zuddas and others took an active part in the work of the round table.
Results:
During the event participants voiced following proposals for the development of Russian-Italian youth cooperation:
- Holding a Russian-Italian youth parliament,
- Holding a short film festival,
- Creation of the Coordinating Bureau of Russian-Italian Youth Exchanges with the assistance of relevant departments of two countries,
- Organization of the Russian-Italian school of young international specialists,
- Implementation of joint projects to preserve historical memory,
- Resumption of the annual bilateral Russian-Italian Youth Forum,
- Development of youth relations and programs in the field of culture and higher education, joint initiatives and projects.
