Matteo Renzi: `The Mediterranean is not the border but the heart of Europe´

Tunis, 4 March, 2014. On the occasion of his first official overseas mission to Tunisia, the new Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, stated that the Mediterranean region is of great importance to Italy and to Europe, as a whole. `The Mediterranean is not the border but the heart of Europe´, said Renzi during a press conference held with his homologue, the Prime Minister of Tunisia, Mehdi Jomaa.

“I chose Tunisia for my first foreign visit as prime minister to show the centrality that Italy attaches to the Mediterranean,” he said. Matteo Renzi, who took office last month, also said that Mediterranean affairs would be central for Italy when it assumes the rotating presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2014.