Launched by the Ukraine Recovery Conference held in Lugano in July 2022 and promoted by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Bern , after the London edition in 2023 and the Berlin one the following year, the annual international summit that sees governments, businesses and international organizations at work in coordinating strategies and resources for the reconstruction of Ukraine is now preparing for its Italian stage.

Returning to the news of these days, at the headquarters of the Lombardy Region, on Wednesday 5 March the first of four preparatory institutional meetings for the Conference on the Recovery of Ukraine 2025 took place, scheduled in Rome on 10 and 11 July, and which will focus on the role of the private sector.

The reconstruction of the Eastern European country after three years of conflict with Russia today has a supranational geopolitical importance, especially for the old continent.

Over the years, in fact, the conflict in Eastern Europe has generated not only economic problems, but especially in recent weeks it has also been complicated by the disengagement, declared and valid until further notice, of the newly elected Trump administration from an armed defense of the European continent at the end of hostilities.

This premise now makes a coordinated strategy between the public and private sectors necessary, to be aimed at defining new and lasting industrial, social, environmental and above all military balances of our continent.

This coordination will also be accompanied by financial burdens that Europe as a whole will have to face independently.

To precede the summit next July in the Italian capital, a schedule of preliminary meetings has been decided to examine three specific objectives:

  • Reforms for accession to the European Union: the meeting is scheduled for 10 and 11 April in Brussels, and is jointly organised by Italy, the European Union and Poland in the framework of the rotating EU Presidency. The second edition of the EU-Ukraine Business Summit will also take place on this occasion. Organised by the European Commission under the programme European Business Summits, this meeting will have as protagonists, in particular: Ukraine, Italy (as the organizer of the Conference on the Recovery of Ukraine 2025) and the Polish Presidency of the EU.
  • Human Capital and Civil Society: is a summit scheduled for April 2 in Kiev, in conjunction with the meeting of the Steering Committee of the Donors Platform. This governing body brings together senior officials from Ukraine, the European Union, G7 countries and other nations and international financial organizations. Its main function is to coordinate socio-economic initiatives to finalize the future integration of Ukraine with the EU. To this end, the Steering Committee of the Donors Platform has been joined in recent months by international organizations such as the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
  • Involvement of local authorities: is a meeting scheduled for May, close to the final conference in July, aimed at strengthening the role of local authorities in the recovery and reconstruction process.

The work of the recent Milanese assembly was opened by the Honorable Antonio Tajani, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Vice President of the Council of Ministers.

The meeting in the Lombardy capital was also attended by 550 representatives of Italian, Ukrainian and international companies.

For the cover image:
Dfae-Berna-media library.