Italy: Rome celebrates Europe Day with concert

Rome: Rome marked Europe Day with a concert on Monday to celebrate European unity and demonstrate Europe’s solidarity with Ukraine, as well as remembering the late European parliament president David Sassoli who died in Italy earlier this year.

The Festa dell’Europa event – organised by the Italian capital with the European parliament, the European Commission and the French embassy in Italy – took place in Piazza del Campidoglio.

The concert comprised performances by violinists Oleksandr Semchuk and Ksenia Milas – a husband and wife duo from Ukraine and Russia – followed by the Tyrtarion Choir of the Vivarium Novum Academy.

Piazza del Campidoglio was illuminated especially for the event whose speakers included Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri, European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni, vice president of the European parliament Pina Picierno, and French ambassador to Italy Christian Masset.

Introduced in 1964, Europe Day is held on 9 May each year to celebrate “peace and unity in Europe”.

The date marks the anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, a new form of political cooperation in Europe that would pave the way for the European Economic Community and subsequently the EU.