On 27 June 2025, FAIC took part in the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Ancona Declaration, a highly symbolic event held at the Mole Vanvitelliana and promoted by the Marche Region, in cooperation with the Adriatic and Ionian Initiative, the Municipality of Ancona, the Chamber of Commerce of the Marche and the Central Adriatic Sea Port Authority. The event was not only a moment to honour a historic milestone in Adriatic-Ionian cooperation, but also an opportunity to renew a shared commitment to a future of peace, growth and European integration.
In her speech, FAIC Secretary General Marta Paraventi recalled that civil society is a driving force in the European integration process, and that FAIC itself was born from this vision: a vision shared by cities which, already in 1999, believed in inter-municipal cooperation as a concrete means to overcome conflict and build common development paths. She strongly reaffirmed that culture remains one of the most powerful tools for building trust and generating spaces for dialogue between communities, stressing that FAIC today stands as a permanent reference point for local authorities in the EUSAIR area. Its statutory mission remains to promote integration and cohesion in the economic, social, environmental and cultural fields among Adriatic-Ionian cities, through innovative forms of decentralised cooperation and partnerships among municipal administrations.
During the event, FAIC President Luigi Albore Mascia and Massimo Bello, President of the City Council of Senigallia, FAIC member and President of AICCRE Marche, also emphasised the importance of the path initiated 25 years ago with the intergovernmental and multilateral declaration signed in Ancona on 19 May 2000 by six countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy and Slovenia. That act, signed only a few years after the Balkan conflicts, marked a political will to inaugurate a new phase of cooperation and stability, leading to the establishment of the Adriatic and Ionian Initiative and laying the foundations for the current EU macro-regional strategy, known today as EUSAIR.
FAIC will continue to pursue this vision with determination, convinced that a cohesive and culturally vibrant Adriatic-Ionian macro-region is a strategic asset for Europe as a whole.
On 26 June, the day before the celebration, Secretary General Marta Paraventi also took part in the event “Know to Connect”, organised in Ancona by the Forum AIC in collaboration with the Chambers of Commerce and the Marche Region.
