The Bureau International des Expositions voted for the Expo 2030 to be held in Riyadh, beating Italy and Busan, with some alledging corruption may have influenced the outcome.
Saudi Arabia won with 165 out of 182 votes, while Busan got 29 and Rome only 17.
“It was unfortunately a largely predictable result because we got off to a late start”, said Enterprise and Made in Italy Minister Adolfo Urso (Fratelli d’Italia/ECR), pointing out, however, that Expo had already taken place in Milan in 2015.
According to estimates in Rome’s candidacy dossier, the event was worth €50.6 billion, creating 11,000 new companies and 300,000 jobs.
But the outcome caused controversey in Rome.
“In the many talks we have had in recent months in the various capitals, the answers on the candidacy have been ‘we are already committed’”, Urso explained.
An accusation was made by the president of the Expo promoting committee, Giampiero Massolo, who spoke of ‘mercantilism’ on the part of the international community, two-thirds of which voted for Riyadh.
“When we sounded out the ground to understand what the orientation was, some delegates replied that they had committed themselves to our competitor (Riyadh, ed.) since 2020 when there was no project yet”, Massolo explained in an interview with Corriere della Sera.
“The behaviour of the major European countries is perplexing, what I would like to see emerge is that the mercantilist drift cannot be stopped by divisions (…) The European Union is defeated and should learn a lesson from what happened”, he points out.
However, two major international events are already scheduled to take place in Italy: the 2025 Jubilee in Rome and the Milan-Cortina Olympics in 2026. “Recrimination is not needed (…) let us prepare to present the excellence of Made in Italy to the world at its best”, said Minister Urso.
(Federica Pascale | Euractiv.it)
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