From passports to citizenship, from healthcare to education. The 53rd Consulta dei Sammarinesi all’Estero (Council of Sammarinese Abroad) was packed with issues, as community representatives brought concrete problems and possible solutions to the table.
The morning session focused mainly on proposals from the communities and the Department of Foreign Affairs. Among the issues raised were calls to simplify procedures for passports and citizenship certificates, the use of institutional email addresses in communications with the Secretariats of State, healthcare access, and the language difficulties that Sammarinese citizens abroad can face when pursuing education and training.
Also discussed was the possibility of issuing San Marino amateur radio licenses to citizens residing outside the territory, as well as a proposal for UNESCO recognition of San Marino as an example of direct democracy and participatory governance developed over the centuries.
In the afternoon, the Secretary of State for Internal Affairs, Andrea Belluzzi, spoke, focusing in particular on citizenship. “Today I focused on two issues: citizenship, in light of the work to harmonize rules that have accumulated over the years, which has also created some problems for residents abroad — problems we intend to resolve,” he explained.
Belluzzi also addressed the condition of San Marino’s cemeteries, ahead of a special initiative that will also involve very old burial sites. “Since we will be working on graves that in some cases date back to before 1957, it is likely that some descendants of the deceased live in communities abroad,” he noted.
Finally, Filippo Tamagnini and Nicola Renzi, co-chairs of the Special Commission for Institutional Reforms, addressed the Consulta, outlining the work underway on San Marino’s constitutional framework. Among the requests put forward by residents abroad was a call for a delegation from the Consulta to be heard by the Commission, so that the perspective of Sammarinese communities outside the territory could be directly incorporated into the reform process.
