ROME -- The second edition of MED -- Mediterranean Dialogues -- will open Thursday at 1:30 p.m., promoted by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, with over 40 head of state, ministers and leaders of international organizations attending, as well as 500 world leaders in politics, economics and finance.

 Amongst those attending will be Paolo Gentiloni, foreign affairs minister and minister of the Italy contingent of International Cooperation; John Kerry, the US Secretary of state; Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister; Frans Timmermans, Vice–President of the European Commission; Ibrahim Abdul–Kareem Hamza Al–Eshaiker AL–Jaafari, Iraq’s foreign affairs minister; Roberta Pinotti, the Italian minister of defence; Boris Johnson, the UK’s Secretary of state for foreign affairs and for the Commonwealth; Filippo Grandi, high commissioner of the UN for refugees.

 Rome MED 2016 will span three days of meetings based around four pillars -- Shared Prosperity, Shared Security, Migration, Civil Society & Culture.

 The event will confront the themes of common security, the war on terror, the future of the Middle East, with a particular focus on Syria and Libya, immigration, energy, prospects for economic growth, and the role of women and young people.

 An Experts’ Panel Survey has been published on these themes, in which the opinions of 100 researchers, journalists, businessmen and international politicians were collected.

 MED 2016 will transform Rome into a real hub of reflection about the Mediterranean, an area not only of conflict and crisis, but also a space rich in potential on which to work in the wider construction of a positive agenda.

 From 1:30 p.m. Thursday onwards, it will be possible to follow all of the plenaries and many of the parallel sessions of Rome MED 2016 in streaming on the site of ISPI. It will also be possible to participate in the twitter live updates with the hashtag #Med2016.

 nkd