By now the question is no longer so much whether, but when. San Marino’s path toward the Association Agreement with the European Union has cleared some of its most important hurdles in recent months, and attention is inevitably shifting to what comes next. What will the upcoming milestones be? How long until the signing? And when will the Agreement actually begin to take effect?
Some indications had already emerged in recent weeks from Foreign Secretary Luca Beccari. The green light from the Council of the European Union on 16 July was hailed by Beccari himself as “a day that will go down in the history of our country.” A striking statement, one that captures just how strategically important Palazzo Begni considers this achievement after more than ten years of negotiations.
Now a new appointment is on the horizon. On Thursday, 10 September, Beccari will report to the Foreign Affairs Committee on the state of progress of the Agreement. It’s easy to imagine that much of the interest will focus precisely on the road map for the coming months.
The signing will naturally be one of the central steps. But immediately after, another phase will open — perhaps even more interesting for the country: that of provisional application. When might it begin? Which parts of the Agreement will be the first to enter San Marino’s daily life? And how long will it take before citizens and businesses can start to see the concrete effects of the association?
These are questions that arise precisely because the finish line now appears much closer than it did just a few years ago. For a long time, the debate in San Marino centred on the negotiations themselves — their content, and even whether it was worth seeing them through to the end. Now the scenario is different: it’s possible to start seriously thinking about the day after.
And this is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the 10 September session: understanding not just how far we’ve come, but how San Marino is preparing for this new phase. Because if 16 July was, as Beccari said, a day destined to go down in history, then the curiosity now is inevitable: what will be the next date to mark on the calendar?
