Dear English-speaking friends, welcome to my website.
Even after having entered parliament, I am determined to keep in close contact with the Italians in my constituency, Europe. This is why in this site you will find information about my parliamentary activities as well as any other aspect of my work outside parliament. My aim is to make my commitment as a member of parliament as transparent as possible and to keep the Italians in Europe posted about what I and my colleagues from the Democratic Party are doing. The English-language version of this site is addressed to those of you who are not so proficient in Italian: for you, I have made some information available in English, as well.
In April 2008 I was elected to the chamber of deputies with the highest number of preference votes of all candidates in my constituency. I represent the roughly two million expatriate Italians living in Europe. Since 2006 they, too, have the right to elect their own lawmakers in Rome. My electoral ward stretches from Gibraltar to Vladivostok, from Reykjavik to Ankara, it embraces all European countries except Italy.
Among the Italians abroad, Berlusconi’s centre-right camp has never had a majority. In fact, the 2008 parliamentary elections saw the moderate left triumph again within the constituency Europe. My party, the Partito Democratico (PD) headed by Walter Veltroni, has been by far the most successful political force among the Italian expatriates throughout Europe.
In the chamber of deputies I am a member of the European affairs commission. As an Italian European and a European Italian, this is the right place for me. I want to help prevent Berlusconi from distancing Italy from Europe. The European affairs commission is interesting because it is a cross sectional commission. In this context we occupy ourselves with key issues of Italian and international politics, we treat social and economic legislation as well as immigration policy, media law, cultural policy, financial policy and, of course, all decisions related to European policy in the narrow sense. I personally stand up for the concerns of expatriate Italians who have a hard time of it with the Berlusconi government.
From within the permanent commission for expatriate Italians I try and press the government to transform the consulates into effective service facilities for the Italians living abroad, to improve the quality of Italian schools and cultural life, to promote integration through the modernization of Italian social facilities abroad, to intensify the international exchange of scientists and students and to strengthen the network between Italian businesses in the world.
My website is updated with new articles about two or three times a week. Once a month I send a newsletter to my Italian voters in Europe informing them about my activities and commenting on a number of recent political topics. I would like to publish this information also in English, French, Spanish and German, in order to enable the non-Italian-speaking friends of the Partito Democratico, too, to access the latest news about Italian politics in general and policies for expatriate Italians in particular.
Unfortunately the work load in parliament and in the constituency is immense and my team is fairly small, comprising only two assistants. This is why we do not manage to translate the articles on this site into the most important languages of my constituency. However, you will find some information in English, for example in the sections “Biografia”, “Dicono di lei” and “Mafia? Nein danke!”. I would be happy if you just took a look into this site and the contents it offers.
My assistants Anne Glase at my parliamentary office in Rome and Matteo Aniello at my constituency office in Berlin are at your disposal for any queries you might have. You may find the respective addresses and phone connections in the section “Contatti”.
Best wishes
Laura Garavini
Partito Democratico
Laura Garavini
