G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors To Meet in Rome on 13 and 14 February
12/01/2009
The calendar of ministerial meetings on the agenda for the year in which Italy's G8 Presidency is gradually taking shape, and for the very first time in the G8's history a session is to be devoted to agriculture. The G7 Finance Ministers and central bank Governors will be the first to meet, in Rome on 13 and 14 February.
Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti recently briefed the press on the key issues that will be addressed at the Rome meeting. The Italian G8 Presidency plans to put forward a proposal for the establishment of an international ethical legal standard with which all countries will be bound to comply. Such a method will make it possible to establish as convergent a network as possible of legal systems governing financial affairs, in order to safeguard savers and citizens. Tremonti highlighted the need to bring ethics back into finance. In Tremonti's view, transparency, conduct and features are the keys to overcoming the financial crisis.
After the Finance Ministers' gathering, it will be the Labour Ministers' turn to meet in Rome, from 29 to 31 March. And in an effort to highlight the key importance that the Italian Presidency assigns to the issue of food safety, also an Agriculture Ministers' meeting has been scheduled for the very first time in the G8's history. The meeting will be held at Cison di Valmarino, in the province of Treviso, on 19 and 20 April. The Environment Ministers, for their part, will be meeting in Syracuse, Sicily, from 22 to 24 April. Announcing the venue for the meeting, Minister Prestigiacomo explained that the ministers will be focusing on issues related to climate change.
A meeting devoted to the issue of development aid will take place in Pescara, from 21 to 23 May. The Interior and Justice Ministers will be meeting in Rome on 29 and 30 May.
The Energy Ministers will also be meeting in the Capital at the end of May, while Lucca is to host a meeting of Science and Technology Ministers in mid-June. The Finance Ministers will be meeting again, also in mid-June in the G8 format. The series of ministerial gatherings prior to the July Summit on the island of La Maddalena will wind up with a Foreign Ministers' meeting in Trieste on 26 June.
