Tajani and Zangrillo meet with trade unions at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Italy's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Antonio Tajani, together with the Minister for Public Administration Paolo Zangrillo, met today with trade unions representing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs employees.

It was the seventh meeting with the trade unions since the beginning of Minister Tajani's term of office. On this occasion, Tajani reaffirmed his constant efforts to strengthen the human and financial resources of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and acknowledged the Ministry's uniqueness among general government bodies.

As the Minister said, "the Foreign Ministry's added value lies in the people who work there, in Rome and abroad, even in difficult conditions - sometimes in war zones - with professionalism, dedication and a sense of the State."

While recalling the results achieved in recent months in terms of workforce enhancement, Tajani reiterated how "thanks to new hires of qualified administrative staff, it will be possible to fill the staff gaps created by retirements and the lack of new recruitment competitions (about 25% in the last 20 years): this is a major turnaround, aimed at ensuring ever greater efficiency within general government".

The Minister pointed out that the recruitment of new personnel is aimed first and foremost at rapidly strengthening the foreign offices, which suffer from a serious shortage of resources and are subject to increasing workloads: "This is a goal we had set and which we are fulfilling; in fact, 280 employees hired in 2023 have already been assigned to a foreign office and are starting to serve in our Embassies and Consulates, after an initial training period in Rome." In view of the forthcoming budget law, the Minister confirmed his commitment to support the strengthening of the workforce, with the aim of ensuring the regularity of competitions for functional areas to return to the staffing levels of 2005, before the spending review.

Finally, Minister Tajani spoke about the need to ensure continuous training courses for the professional development of all employees, recalling the results of the joint work carried out so far in cooperation with Minister Zangrillo.