From a Welfare State to a ‘Civil’ Welfare model
Fondazione Terzo Pilastro and the role of the Mediterranean region.

Fondazione Terzo Pilastro – Internazionale operates in the fields of Health, Scientific Research, Aid for the Less Fortunate, Education, Art and Culture and, in the latter, also acts as a trait d’union between the cultures of countries overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The Foundation initially performed most of its activities in Southern Italy and the Mediterranean Region for the purpose of paying more attention to the neglected regions of Southern Italy and the Maghreb. However, for some time now it is also committed to boosting philanthropy and culture in the Near and Middle East, the new protagonists of our history”. In fact, everything beautiful surrounding us originated in the Mediterranean region: poetry, literature, art, education, monotheistic religions, philosophy and democracy. I have focused on this environment ever since I was young. Some say this is because my personality was certainly influenced by the great leading figures in the history of humanity who lived in Sicily, my homeland, or rather Roger II the Norman and, above all, Frederick II who preferred to be called King of Sicily rather than Holy Roman Emperor or King of Germany and loved the Mediterranean region immensely. This man embodied all the excellences of human intellect: he was an eminent jurist, a legislator who reformed the administrative structure of the State, an architect, man of letters, poet, patron of science and the arts, farsighted philanthropist with progressive ideas. He started the process of integration between the Greek, Latin, Arab and Jewish cultures and even invented a Romance language, to enable communication between the various ethnic groups, and reached agreements, without bloodshed, whereby Christians were allowed to enter Jerusalem … and much more.

Since it was established, Fondazione Terzo Pilastro has accomplished many projects in this regard and has opened several representative offices in the regions of interest (in Cosenza and Reggio Calabria in Calabria; Naples in Campania; Rabat in North Africa; Madrid and lastly in Malta) in order to experience first-hand the local reality and create strategic operational centres in the relevant territories.

Furthermore, over the years the Foundation has created and completed, in a progressively more structured and systematic way, projects of high socio-economic, educational or cultural value in most of the Mediterranean basin and subsequently increasingly more towards the East until reaching Russia and China even becoming directly involved, with efficacy, in the neediest countries.

Furthermore, over the years the Foundation has created and completed, in a progressively more structured and systematic way, projects of high socio-economic, educational or cultural value in most of the Mediterranean basin and subsequently increasingly more towards the East until reaching Russia and China even becoming directly involved, with efficacy, in the neediest countries.

PROFESSOR EMMANUELE F. M. EMANUELE