German Delegation Visits Summit Venue on La Maddalena
6/3/2009
Delegations from the countries taking part in the G8 Summit on the island of La Maddalena from 8 to 10 July are continuing to visit the area. The first week in March saw a visit from the German delegation led by Counselor Hubert Ziegler, chief of ceremonial. The delegation flew into Sardinia on 5 March and headed for home again the next day. Its members were greeted by the staff of the Office of the Commissioner Delegate to the G8 summit, led by mission structure chief Admiral Giuseppe De Giorgi representing Commissioner Delegate Guido Bertolaso.
These visits are an important event for the G8 countries. The meetings on the island of La Maddalena offer participants an opportunity to discuss the organisational agenda, because several changes still need to be made to this agenda before the summit takes place on account of the growing number of countries invited to attend. The visit was held in the offices of the Commissioner Delegate's structure on La Maddalena, as indeed have most of the other delegations' visits to date. At these meetings, guests are first briefed on all of the summit's organisational aspects with films and presentations. The delegations' members are then able to explore in further depth with the structure's various departments such issues as lodgings, transport, information technology and telecommunications, and the media.
The programme continues with a visit to the Arsenal, where the summit's main structures are under construction. After returning to the Sardinian mainland, the German delegation pursued the same programme as all of its predecessors, travelling to the port area of Olbia where it visited the nascent media centre which will be hosting the thousands of journalists and media professional tracking the summit. The delegation's last stop, before departing for Rome's Fiumicino airport where it was to catch a connecting flight to Germany, was devoted to an inspection of the hotels in the area.
All of the delegations so far (and the German delegates were certainly no exception) have voiced their satisfaction over the progress being made with the construction work, which is right on schedule, as Commissioner Delegate Guido Bertolaso pointed out in the course of a recent meeting with the mayors and authorities of Olbia Tempio province. The governments of the countries attending the summit have voiced their appreciation for the serene and mutually cordial atmosphere surrounding these initial opportunities for cooperation.
