ENP Chair High-Level Talk with Mr Alessio NARDI: "The Maghreb and the EU: In Search of New Meaning and Momentum"

On 17 November 2020, the European Neighbourhood Policy Chair organized the closing event of the Natolin Neighbourhood Days 2020.

On this occasion, we were glad to host Mr Alessio NARDI, Member of the Cabinet of the Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, for an ENP Chair High-Level Talk moderated by Professor Tobias SCHUMACHER, Chairholder of the European Neighbourhood Policy Chair.

"The Maghreb and the EU: In Search of New Meaning and Momentum"

The EU and the countries in the Maghreb are linked with one another through multiple ties, ranging across colonial legacies and shared identities, trade and investment, and common soft and hard security challenges. Whereas Libya has never institutionalised its relationship with the EU, cooperation between the EU and Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia is regulated by Europe-Mediterranean Association Agreements and a multitude of cooperation pacts. In the Summer of 2019, the EU and Morocco have even established a Euro-Moroccan Partnership for Shared Prosperity, underscoring the country’s strategic role in the framework of the EU’s fight against irregular migration.

This event offered to students an opportunity to critically discuss with Mr NARDI all the above, as well as the ongoing war in Libya; Tunisia’s stuttering democratic experience and autocratic resilience in Algeria and Morocco. The online event took place on Zoom.

About the speaker:

Alessio NARDI has been Member of the Cabinet of the Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Olivér VÁRHELYI, since December 2019. He is responsible for North Africa, migration at horizontal level, budget, and relations with the IFIs, ECA and some member states like Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Malta. Before that, he worked at the European Parliament, where he oversaw the security and protection Unit and later joined the cabinet of the former President Antonio TAJANI.

Mr NARDI has a long career as officer of Italian Guardia di Finanza, from which he retired with the rank of General in 2014. During his duty, he was responsible for anti-mafia investigations, money laundering, corruption, and international cooperation. From 2004 to 2010, he was detached as liaison officer at the Italian Embassy in London, where he followed — in coordination with the UK law enforcement agencies — all the most sensitive transnational investigations. It was in 2010 that he took up his first commitment in Brussels, as head of operations at OLAF, being the responsible for investigations in external aid, IPA, and internal investigations.