H.E. Mr. Giovanni Adorni Braccesi Chiassi:

I thank the Chairman. It is not easy to answer all those questions which have many common links. The first issue related to the challenges to achieve more growth and especially youth employment and the gap between politics and public opinion. The Italian Presidency is facing many challenges. Prime Minister Renzi's programme is very ambitious but he is a very ambitious man. He has proved that being ambitious can sometimes be very effective. The results of the Italian European election are proof of that. His political campaign was focused on European and international issues and he got an incredible result as the party he leads got 41% of the votes. He is in a strong political position.

This will enable him to have a better Presidency and will help him achieve the major reforms required in Italy. We have a serious unemployment problem in Italy, more serious than that in Ireland, with approximately 18% of the population and 40% of our youth unemployed. In the southern part of Italy in particular, the unemployment level touches dramatic figures. Therefore, there is much to be done.

In Italy, we must achieve reforms which have already been achieved in other countries, such as in Germany and Spain. This reform will not be easy, but it must be achieved to deregulate the system and help those without jobs to get jobs. An important meeting was scheduled to discuss growth and youth unemployment. This meeting was scheduled to take place in Turin in the next few days, but it has been postponed for security reasons and will probably take place in November.

I read a very funny article written by a French economist on how the 3% was decided 30 years ago and how we must stick to it now. While it is an important figure, I believe the solution to the issues is to consider what we can exclude from this 3%, such as infrastructure investments which would help the creation of jobs and so on. I see that as one of the major battles of our Presidency with our European partners. I hope we can achieve something, because otherwise the gap I mentioned previously, between public opinion and the European institutions, will not be bridged. The view of the Italian Foreign Ministry is that there is no future apart from Europe.

This year, we are celebrating two important anniversaries, of the First and Second World Wars, and many books have been written recently on both. Every country, including Ireland, paid highly with the blood of their citizens during these two wars. We must avoid a recurrence of these events because of the problems facing our young people. I have met some of these young people, including one from my own town in Italy. It is true we face major problems in Europe. These problems seem more difficult to resolve because we face a period of low growth and other important international issues, such as immigration. It is hard for me to believe that in Europe, where the young generation travels from one country to another with just an identity document, where we have a common currency for most countries and where young people can spend a year of their university course in another country, we will return to a situation like that we had 30 years ago, when the European project already existed, but not in the current state. It is a long process.

We are, perhaps, paying for success which saw a fast enlargement of the European Union. We moved slowly from six to nine countries and then 15 and then moved quickly to 28 and could get even bigger. We must now go through a "digestive" process to bring together our common values. At the same time, we must maintain a Europe where each country retains its differences and specialties, but where we all become more European. The borders of Europe go back centuries, but despite borders there has been a large contribution by Ireland. Irish monks built monasteries all around Europe and these seem of more influence than the Roman influence which created the idea of Europe.

We need to make a major achievement on growth and I expect to see negotiation on this between the political actors. Italy, through its Presidency, is working on that direction and we were pleased to see the Irish Minister for Finance supports our way of thinking. I believe change is on the way. The other day, I read an interesting article which suggested the European Central Bank will use the European Investment Bank to accelerate investment. I was not aware of it, but apparently the European Investment Bank can take money from the European Central Bank. Of course, being part of the European institutions, it is easier to get money and to spend it or give it to companies and not only other banks. Therefore, we have a way to achieve better things, but through the hands of specialists.

We may not solve other major issues, such as immigration, an issue to which I will return. As the Senator pointed out, many Italians are leaving Italy to go to other European countries. This is not easy to do. If someone was trained to be a nurse in Italy and decides to go to Scandinavia or Germany, he or she must learn another language, although we are European and it is easier now to make a move like this. More and more people are leaving their own country to go to another European country. This movement is good. Many young Italian people who came to Ireland were able to find jobs. If we look back, the origin of the Italian presence in Ireland goes back to the 1920s. It is surprising that some Italians came here just before Ireland became independent and they were able to create something that did not exist here, fish and chip shops, and also create new jobs for Irish people. This helped them to integrate well into Irish society. We must learn from them and be optimistic.

I believe the mix of experiences will help Europe to grow. I was pleased to see in Trinity College, where there is important emphasis on physics, the department of nanotechnology is directed by an Italian physicist and has 400 people working in it. It is achieving incredible results and receiving aid not only from the Irish Government but also from private companies, American ones in particular. This means American money is being invested here in Europe. I welcome everything to do with the Erasmus programme and would encourage further investment in it.

The exchange of experiences will help Europe to recover and to create new job opportunities. That goes back to immigration problems. It is a tragedy and we will not stop it with boats. There was a major concern when last summer the number of casualties started to rise in such a dramatic way that Italy decided to set up an operation called Mare Nostrum in order to prevent people who are trying to come to Europe dying between the southern and northern shores of the Mediterranean Sea.

There are several major concerns. That wave of emigrants comes from all around the world, not just from Africa or northern Africa, but from Asia, including from China, Afghanistan and Pakistan. There are up to 50 different nationalities on those boats. That creates two kinds of problem. The first is that our public opinion is not prepared to receive such numbers and the variety of cultures is very difficult to handle.

Italy was one of the biggest exporters of people for decades. There are the same number of people of Italian origin abroad as there are in Italy. The majority of Italians who went to America, north and south, Australia and around the world achieved incredible success. It is true that it is not easy to handle but we do not have to take only a negative view of those people, partly because there are jobs Italians do not want to do any more. There is, on the other hand, a decrease in population which will be a major problem in the next 15 or 20 years in Italy as the population gets older with no young people to look after it.

The situation in Ireland is rather different but we have things in common because young people are leaving the country. Ireland is recovering well compared with other European countries but there are still young people who are not happy. It is easier for them because they speak English which is the most international language. What can we do to help those people? First, there must be more unity among European countries. We are carrying a heavy burden because these people come first to Italy. People forget that we have a small island, Lampedusa, which is much closer to the shore of north Africa than to Malta. Many people pay a high price to come to Europe and there are an increasing number of criminals exploiting that. Last week, our navy stopped a boat on which there were more than 50 dead people. They had paid just to die.

A proposal was made to ask the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, to open offices in Libya to set up human rights controls. A few days ago there was a big conference in Morocco. The northern African countries face the same problems because not everyone will cross the Mediterranean Sea. They will stay there and the governments must deal with those problems every day. I was in Morocco for three years at the beginning of this century. It was dramatic because people will try to go from Morocco to Spain in extreme conditions and at that time Spain could not be left alone. One can see Spain across the sea from Tangiers. It is only 15 km away. That is not the easiest route. They will go through the Canary Islands to go to Spain because apparently that is much easier. There were casualties every day in the Strait of Gibraltar.

We have to help the countries that receive this large number of refugees. It is not easy. The numbers are in the millions. Information moves faster and faster in modern society. Television channels can be picked up in the middle of the African desert. One has only to connect a television set with a battery. When I was in Central America, everyone had a mobile phone and knew what was going on.

We have to be realistic. We have to be united which would be the beginning of a solution. Many of these people are well educated. There are engineers, doctors and so on coming from Syria. They are leaving their country because they know their lives are at risk. They do not want to stay in Italy because they know people in Germany or in France or have relatives there. We cannot stop them going to those other countries. It is a very complex situation we face because we are on the front line. We are asking our European partners for help and slowly the message is getting through. We hope during this semester there will be more focus on this very important issue.

The economic situation is severe. I am glad to see that certain countries are recovering faster than others. I read some optimistic figures for Ireland. Today, there is a very important summit in Venice about the digital economy. I read that in Ireland alone the digital economy could in the next ten years create approximately 100,000 new jobs. That is a very specialised area and I do not know what the outcome will be but it is being discussed in Venice. I do not want to live in a dream world but we do not have to be negative about the future of Europe. Let us see the good things and what we can achieve together.

Our future can only be a closer Europe. If we were to lose a part of the EU, such as the United Kingdom, which is not a small part, that would be very dramatic, particularly for Ireland.

The United Kingdom will not be able to get European aid to assist with Northern Ireland and the problems will arise again. The Irish people know our British friends better than anyone else so perhaps they can do something on this issue. I am preoccupied by the numbers as I read that over 40% of the British people are unaware of Britain's membership of the European Union. This indicates the British Government has failed in its responsibility to keep British citizens informed and will face major problems with the Scottish referendum.

Our future is in Europe and there is a newly formed European Parliament that will sit for five years. Italian Members of the European Parliament are in touch with the Italian Parliament so there is a constant dialogue. National parliaments must point things out in Strasbourg and there are things we can do to make things less onerous in Europe. For example, during the elections the Prime Minister, Mr. Matteo Renzi, pointed out that there have been discussions in Brussels on the size of fishing hooks used for tuna in the Mediterranean. This may be an important issue but it is relatively small compared to other issues related to the Mediterranean. In Rome, we feel we must return to a more political Europe or there is no future.

The Italian Presidency will last only six months, the new European Parliament will sit for five years and a new European Commission will begin its work shortly. The other week the Commission was in Rome and held major meetings with the Italian Prime Minister and President, who is a keen European. The goals of the Italian Presidency were made clear and we should be ambitious, as Mr. Renzi said.