Chris Patten and Giuliano Amato will chair the annual UK-Italian conference, this year on the effects of ageing populations and immigration, at the Certosa di Pontignano this weekend.

At the opening session at 18.00 on Friday evening, which is open to the media, Mario Monti, Neil Kinnock and Chris Patten will review their experiences as European Commissioners over the last ten years. Italian Education Minister Letizia Moratti, UK Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Patricia Hewitt, and Europe minister Denis MacShane will be among the 100 participants from Italy and the UK.

On Saturday the debate continues behind closed doors with plenary speakers including Minister Moratti and Robert Cooper. The conference then divides to examine issues including how we fund the future, including pensions,   whether ageing means cultural stagnation, immigration as a possible solution to ageing populations and the declining role of Europe in a world of globalisation, weakened borders and terrorism. On Sunday, participants will hold an impromptu debate on the most pressing international issue of the day.

After Pontignano last year, a journalist commented: "(the event was) remarkable and it's very rare... that people are prepared to speak off the cuff, be seen naked. The frankness of ministers was striking."

Notes for editors

1. The programme for Pontignano 2004, including a list of participants and introductions to the workshop issues, can be accessed at http://www.britishcouncil.it/pontignano. Also available are background on demographic issues and thinkpieces on the Pontignano workshop issues by Letizia Moratti, Robert Cooper, Riccardo Viale and Adair Turner.
   
2. The opening session on Friday is open to the media, but the rest of the conference is closed to the press. For further information and to request an interview with participants, please contact Geoffrey Watson, British Embassy Rome, on 335 751 6844.
   
3. Media representatives wishing to attend the opening session on Friday 17 September, or to speak to delegates outside the discussion workshops only on Saturday or Sunday, should send a fax of accreditation, signed by their editor and on company letterhead, to the University of Siena Press Office, fax. 0577 232375, by 13:00 on Friday 17 September.
   
4. The Pontignano Conference, established in 1993, brings 100 British and Italian politicians, parliamentarians, business people, academics, journalists and other opinion formers to the Certosa di Pontignano in September each year. The themes under discussion at the Conference are the key issues facing Britain and Italy in Europe today. It is chaired by Chris Patten and Giuliano Amato. The Conference is organised by the British Council and the British Embassy in Rome in collaboration with the Italian Embassy in London, the University of Siena and St Antony's College, Oxford.
   
5. The underlying theme of the 2004 Pontignano Conference is the impact of demographic change in our two countries and throughout the whole of Europe. People are living longer and having fewer children. The proportion of the population over 60 years old in Western Europe is likely to grow from 21.6% in 2000 to 33.5% in 2050. Without a major change in birth rates or immigration, UN figures (December 2003 Long Range Forecasting exercise, medium variant) forecast that Italy’s population will decline from 57 million in 2000 to 45 million in 2050: the UK’s will virtually stop growing. What is the answer: immigration, raising the birth rate, working longer, increasing productivity? Does it matter that Europe’s population and GDP will shrink as a percentage of world totals and that its relative military power will decline?
   
6. The British Council builds mutually beneficial relationships between people in the UK and other countries and to increase appreciation of the UK's creative ideas and achievements.  In Italy there are British Council offices in  Rome, Naples, Milan and Bologna.
   
7. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Britain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, works to promote the United Kingdom's interests in a safe, just and prosperous world. The FCO is represented in Italy by the Embassy in Rome, the Consulate General in Milan, Consulates in Rome, Naples and Florence, and Honorary Consuls in several other cities.