New Actors on the Horizon: The International Outreach of Italian CSOs

Abstract

Italian civil society organisations are holding more and more sway in the foreign policy arena, strengthening links with their counterparts both in the European Union and further abroad. Some well-organised groups are increasingly capable of wielding influence in the international scenario, mainly thanks to their initiatives directed at fuelling citizens’ interests in sensitive issues and fostering transnational cooperation. In parallel with these global trends, Italian civil society is going through a period of change and reassessment, shaken by the need to protect some core values to which it is undeniably attached.

Notes

¹ http://www.agenziaperleonlus.it/

²See Marchetti and Tocci, “Conflict Society: Understanding the Role of Civil Society”.

³Keck and Sikkink, Activists beyond borders.

⁴LSE Global Civil Society Yearbooks from 2001 to 2006: Glasius et al., Global Civil Society 2001.

⁵See Alti, “Censimenti generali 2010–2011, 2.

⁶ISTAT, “Istituzioni nonprofit secondo la forma istituzionale per sezione, sottosezione, divisione, gruppo, classe e categoria di attività economica e classe di addetti”, 8th General Census on Industries and Services, Tab. 3.8. http://dwcis.istat.it/cis/index.htm.

⁷The 1999 ISTAT Census was published in an up-to-date version in 2001, which registered a further 6.3% increase in NPOs, thus totalling 235,232.

⁸(Translation from the Italian) See Agenzia per le Onlus (2008), Relazione Annuale sull’attività svolta dall’Agenzia, 28. www.governo.it/GovernoInforma/Dossier/relazione_onlus/relazione_annuale.pdf.

⁹Ibid. The growing importance prompted the Agency to sign a Protocol of Understanding with ISTAT in 2007, aimed at cooperating, among other things, on a second national census of NPOs in 2009.

¹⁰FBI, The Impact of Organized Crime, http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/orgcrime/aboutocs.htm

¹¹For details on the different mafia groups in Italy, see http://www.camera.it/_bicamerali/nochiosco15_Antimafia.asp?pagina=/_bicamerali/leg15/antimafia/home.htm.

¹²Law 109/96, which came into force on 7 March 1996, provides for the transfer of mafia-owned real estate to associations, cooperatives, municipal, provincial or regional administrations for social uses. To date, 8017 properties have been confiscated and 3812 of them have been put to social use (see Libera, “Beni immobili confiscati alla criminalità organizzata al 31.12.2007”, www.libera.it).

¹³www.terradelfuoco.org/

¹⁴Among other issues, FLARE is committed to fighting the illegal arms trade, human trafficking, corruption, eco-crimes and drug trafficking.

¹⁵Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Egypt, England, France, Georgia, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Kosovo, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine. www.flarenetwork.org

¹⁶Il Portale Antimafia, “Proposta giornata europea della lotta alla mafia per il 21 marzo”, 11 June 2008. http://falconeborsellino.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/proposta-giornata-europea-dellimpegno-antimafia-il-21-marzo/.

¹⁷Libera, “Giornata di conclusioni e proposte per Contromafie Europeo”, http://dev.flexcmp.com/Libera/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/226.

¹⁸For a comprehensive list of Italian CSOs focusing on environment, see ISPRA, Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale. http://www.apat.gov.it/site/it-IT/

¹⁹Legambiente, “Rapporto Ecomafia 2008”, 19 August 2008. http://www.legambiente.eu/documenti/2008/0604Ecomafia2008/index.php

²⁰Legambiente, “Contromafie per libertà, cittadinanza, legalità, giustizia, solidarietà”, 17 November 2006. http://www.legambiente.eu/documenti/2006/1031_contromafie/index.php

²¹ Legambiente and Grup d’Estudi y Protecció dels Ecosistemes del Camp, Ecologistes de Catalunya (GEPEC-EC) worked together for the comparative study. See “The Illegal Trafficking in Hazardous Waste in Italy and Spain”, Rome, October 2003. http://www.legambiente.eu/documenti/2004/0709_ecomafia_italia_spagna/ecomafia_italia_spagna_EN.pdf

²²European Parliament, Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, “Summary Note”, ENVI Committee delegation to Italy, 22–23 November 2006 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/dv/delegation_italy_/delegation_italy_en.pdf

²³http://www.eeb.org/and http://www.iucn.org/.

²⁴Participating countries include Albania, Croatia, Greece, Malta and France (Corsica).

²⁵Since the government revealed plans in 2008 to bring back nuclear energy, Legambiente asked all local administrations to prohibit the installation of nuclear facilities on their territory. “Nucleare: Legambiente si mobilita, lettera a Comuni e Concerti”, AGI News, 7 October 2008. http://www.agi.it/research-e-sviluppo/notizie/200810071358-eco-rt11106-art.html

²⁶Andreis, “Have we created a monster?”.

²⁷A. Riccardi, “Relazioni vere e sincere”, Avvenire, 9 June 2007.

²⁸“Message from the Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to the 7th International Meeting for Peace of St. Egidio Community”, Milan, 19–22 December 1993.

²⁹For more information on the Community of Sant’Egidio's activities in Mozambique and Guatemala, see Giro, “The Community of Sant’Egidio and its Peace-Making Activities”, 85–100.

³⁰The other 8 countries involved in the project are Angola, Camerun, Republic of Congo, Guinea Bissau, Republic of Guinea, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania. See DREAM Report 2008. http://dream.santegidio.org/UserFiles/file/Report/DREAM_REPORT_5_2008_IT2.pdf

³¹Moro and Vannini, “Italian Civil Society Facing New Challenges”, 24.

³²The rise and spread of a small town-based Italian CSO, Slow Food, is also worth mentioning. This organisation lays special importance by natural foods, not produced by intensive agriculture, and is aimed at fostering a “culture of taste”. Founded in 1986, it became an international association three years later and is present today in 130 countries. Its leitmotif is a return to tradition and the original values of healthy food and respect for the environment.

³³G. Moro, “Public Institutions Interacting with Citizens’ Organisations: A survey on public policies regarding civic activism in Europe”, Active Citizenship Network, March 2004. http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/news/consulting_public/code_conduct_npo/contributions/contribution_active_citizenship_network2_en.pdf

³⁴See M. Tosatti, “Il Confine Varcato in Occasione del Meeting sulla Pace della Comunità di Sant’Egidio”, La Stampa, 17 November 2008.

³⁵For more information on the media's attitude towards CSOs, see Forum Permanente del Terzo Settore, Quale Identità e Ruolo per il Futuro del Volontariato, Rome, 11 September 2004. http://www.nonprofitonline.it/static/news/rapporti/volontariato_110904.pdf

³⁶J. Galtung, “Developing the EU's Response Crisis and Longer Term Threats”. Address to EU Commission, Brussels, November 2007. http://www.transcend-nordic.org/index.cfm?id=170365