With the Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tayyani SYRIZA MEP and Coordinator of the European Parliament Committee of Constitutional Affairs met today and co -ordinator of the European Parliament Nicolas Farantouris In the Taormina of Sicily
The meeting took place during an official visit on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Messina conference in June 1955 that paved the way for the Rome Treaty and the establishment of the EEC in 1957.
At the meeting as well as at the official dinner that followed, the two men had the opportunity to talk about Europe’s security and defense, immigration, developments in the Middle East, EU-US relations and international trade.
Antonio Tayyani said “a friend of Greece” and called for closer cooperation from European countries for the major challenges. He pointed out that “we need to explain to European citizens better our decisions because they neither know nor always understand their feasibility and this removes peoples from the European idea.”
In his statements, Nicolas Farantouris noted that “the foundations of European integration are here, in Magna Greacia and the ancient Greek communities founded by our restless ancestors and spread throughout the European continent with sciences, philosophy and art.”
As the Greek MEP typically said, addressing Italy’s deputy prime minister, “there are no small and large countries in Europe. There are small and those who have not yet realized that they are small in the world sphere. But we can all be great, powerful and influential, catalyst for developments and a factor of stability, peace, security and prosperity for our peoples and the world. “
Who is Antonio Tayyani
Antonio Tayyani has been deputy prime minister of Italy and foreign minister in the government of Georgia Meloni since 2022. He was president of his European parliament2019-2022. He has also been a Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship from 2010 to 2014 and Transport Commissioner from 2008 to 2010, as well as Head of the European Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee.
We met with the Italian Prime Minister @Antonio_tajani In Taormina, Sicily in the context of an official visit on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Messina Conference. Here, in Magna Greacia of our anxious ancestors, the foundations of European integration were laid. pic.twitter.com/x6i8jQbgTI
– Nikolas Farantouris / Nikolas Farantouris (@nfarantouris) June 19, 2025
The Messina Conference
70 years ago, on June 1-3, 1955, the six member states of the then European Carbon and Steel (ECX) community adopted a resolution at the end of the Six Foreign Ministers Conference in Messin, Sicily. The resolution of the six Foreign Ministers called for continuing efforts to establish a united Europe, with the development of common institutions, the gradual merger of national economies, the establishment of a joint market and the gradual harmonization of national social policies: The Netherlands have declared that it is time to go a step further towards Europe’s building. This step must first be taken in the financial sector. The six governments believe that further progress must be towards the creation of a united Europe with the development of common institutions, the gradual merger of national economies, the creation of a common market and the gradual harmonization of their social policies. “
