President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca met Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinale Palace.

During the meeting, they touched upon a variety of issues of mutual interest currently affecting the Euro-Mediterranean region.

President Coleiro Preca said that both Malta and Italy enjoyed excellent bilateral relations on a diplomatic and political level and added that these relations developed further over the years thanks to increased people-to-people contact at all levels of society, with a strong Maltese diaspora in Italy and an even stronger Italian diaspora in Malta.

President Coleiro Preca and President Mattarella also spoke on the future of Europe in light of the upcoming European Parliament elections in May; the phenomenon of migration and how sustainable direct investment in Africa could be part of the solution to this phenomenon; and of the Arraiolos Group of non-executive EU Presidents, which provides the non-executive presidents with a platform to bring forward their peoples’ feelings, concerns, suggestions, and aspirations.

At the end of the meeting, President Coleiro Preca thanked President Mattarella for his ooperation at various moments during her tenure, describing him as a wise leader, not only in Italy, but in Europe.

President Coleiro Preca was accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela and Malta’s Ambassador to Italy Vanessa Frazier.

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