Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi announced on Tuesday in a press conference following the G20 tourism ministers’ meeting in Rome that Italy will introduce their own travel green certificate by the end of May.
In advance of the European green pass for travel, which will be introduced in mid-June, Italy “has introduced a national green pass, which will come into force from the second half of May” and will allow Italian tourism to become “a sector as strong as it was before the pandemic, if not even stronger”.
“The pandemic forced us to close, but Italy is ready to welcome the world back. There will be clear and simple rules to ensure that tourists can come to us safely,” he said.
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After four year of Trumpism, the United States made its big comeback on the green diplomacy stage last week by organising a virtual climate summit in Washington.
As expected, the summit’s mainstay was the announcement of America’s new 2030 climate target. President Joe Biden proclaimed that the world’s largest economy will cut emissions by 50-52% by 2030 compared with 2005 levels, roughly doubling Barack Obama’s previous pledge to cut emissions by 26-28% by 2025.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi presented the country’s national recovery and resilience plan to deputies on Monday, calling it “transversal” in achieving gender equality, supporting young people and the growth of southern Italy.
“We would all be wrong to think that the plan is just a set of projects, as necessary as they are ambitious, of numbers, objectives and deadlines,” the prime minister said on Monday.
“Put in there the lives of Italians, the expectations of those who have suffered from the pandemic, the aspirations of families, the right claims of those who do not have a job or those who have had to close their business. In the set of programmes there is the destiny of the country, its credibility,” Draghi added.
“In honouring the memory of those who fought for freedom, we must also remember that we, Italians, were not all ‘good people’,” Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Sunday, the day Italy celebrated its 76th anniversary since 1946, the year it the Italian Civil War and Nazi occupation ended.
“We must remember that not choosing is immoral. It means killing those who showed courage in front of occupiers and sacrificed themselves to allow us to live in a democratic country”, said Italy’s PM.
Knowing the history of this period in depth would make the country “more aware of the importance of republican values and of how essential it is to defend them every day,” he added.
In today’s news from the Capitals
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PRISTINA
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has rejected a redrawing of borders in the Western Balkans along ethnic lines and the idea has been “put back into a drawer”. Read more.
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EU PRESIDENCY
New European Bauhaus ‘crucially important’ for EU climate goals. Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa has said that the European initiative called the New European Bauhaus was of crucial importance to ensure that the bloc achieved its climate goals. Read more.
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PARIS
France’s COVID-19 situation is improving. The COVID-19 situation in France “is improving,” French Prime Minister Jean Castex told a press conference Thursday evening, adding that “the peak of the third wave seems to be behind us.” Read more.