Rome, 12 September (LaPresse) – ‘Ventotene, once a place of imprisonment and oppression and a symbol of the absolutism that weighed heavily on Italy under the fascist regime, has long since been transformed into one of the places that inspire the affirmation of the values of peace and democracy that characterise the experience of what has become the European Union’. These were the words of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, in a message sent to the Vice-President of the European Parliament, Pina Picierno, on the occasion of the first European Conference of Ventotene for Peace and Democracy.