Ukraine, Thursday and Friday Reconstruction Conference in Rome. 500 Italian companies will participate
More than 3,500 participants, around 100 official delegations and 40 international organisations are expected at the conference. Macron and Starmer absent: new summit of the willing on the same day
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Key points
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On Thursday 10 and Friday 11 July Rome will host the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2025. Opening the conference on the first day will be Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Over 90 countries and 80 heads of state and government are expected at the Eur 'Nuvola', including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Meloni and Merz will take part in a video conference at the summit of the 'coalition of the willing', convened by Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer at Northwood airbase, just outside London. Both the French president and the UK premier will therefore not be present at the Rome conference. As it stands,
Representatives of 2,000 companies were present. The Volunteers were founded in February with the aim of structuring a force of peacekeepers in Ukraine after the ceasefire. The Rome conference is the fourth conference on Ukraine's recovery, following the events in Lugano (2022), London (2023) and Berlin (2024).
This is, organisational sources explain, the main international event on the reconstruction of Ukraine, which will bring together more than 3,500 participants, around 100 official delegations, 40 international organisations and 2,000 companies, 500 of which are Italian.
Panels and Round Tables
The conference, it was explained, will be divided into several high-level discussion panels on the four dimensions (private sector; human capital; regional and local dimension; reforms and EU accession), with the participation of numerous government ministers; a Recovery Forum (a series of consecutive round tables and workshops dedicated to the main economic sectors such as infrastructure, construction, energy, agribusiness, digital, strategic industry, and health); and an economic segment dedicated to Italian, Ukrainian and international companies, which together with Ukrainian central and local administrations will be able to present themselves and interact in B2B and B2G meetings. The work of the panels and round tables will continue with the same format on 11 July.
The programme
.The conference programme, currently being finalised, foresees - after an introductory greeting by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani - the official opening on Thursday at 10.30 a.m. with Meloni's speech in the plenary session. This will be followed by speeches by Zelensky, von der Leyen, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (Germany hosted the 2024 edition), Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (Poland will organise the 2026 edition) and Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska.
