The Third Edition of the inter-institutional annual Euro-Mediterranean conference Ponza Prima-Med is scheduled for September 5th, 2021, on the Island of Ventotene. It will also be the occasion to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the drafting of the Ventotene Manifesto for a Free and United Europe (1941), written by Altiero Spinelli, at the time confined to the Pontine Archipelago (Ponza 1937-1939, Ventotene 1939-1943).

The name of this initiative is composed of two parts: the word Ponza refers to an Island of the Pontine Archipelago, where the 2019 and 2020 editions were held and where the 2021 edition will also take place. Instead, Prima-Med refers to the Euro-Mediterranean organization Prima Foundation and its Italian Secretariat, and inspires the topics of the initiative, namely circular economy, climate change and food security.

The aim of the Ponza Prima-Med initiative is to transform the Pontine Archipelago – today Union of the Municipalities of Ponza and Ventotene – into a point of reference for technological and cultural innovation in the Euro-Mediterranean region, in order to increase the prestige and economic potential of the area. In fact, the main proposal of the initiative is the restoration and transformation of the Turtledoves Villa, located in the heart of the Island of Ponza, into a Center for Higher Education and Science Diplomacy on Sustainability, in collaboration with Dr. Silvia Costa, Special Commissioner of the Government for the Redevelopment of the ex Bourbon Prison on the Island of Santo Stefano in Ventotene.