Good afternoon everyone, thank you for being here, and above all thanks to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, for coming to Emilia-Romagna to personally understand the situation being faced by this region, and with it the entire nation. I wish to thank President von der Leyen because I was with her at the G7 in Hiroshima, in Japan, when this disaster first happened. President von der Leyen immediately showed her attention and solidarity, as did the other leaders. I also wish to thank the many heads of state and government who have written to us over the last days, offering their solidarity and readiness to help. 
This solidarity has also already been demonstrated by the fact that the EU Civil Protection Mechanism has been activated. I wish to thank Fabrizio Curcio and the rest of the Civil Protection Department. Nine Member States have already offered their help and so there are already very concrete signs of solidarity from Europe. 
Support from the European Commission and European Union can clearly play a very important role at this stage. Over the coming weeks, once we have managed to complete an overall estimate of the damage caused by the flooding, we will also submit a request to activate the Solidarity Fund, as provided for in the event of disasters and natural catastrophes. This is unfortunately a fund that Italy has already had to use on other occasions. 
I believe it was important for President von der Leyen to see with her own eyes the extent of the problem and the multifaceted problems we are dealing with, because we will need a special focus on this region, also in relation to the various kinds of programmes and other funds: from cohesion funds onwards; I am thinking of the whole issue of agriculture, for example. This is a highly agricultural region and attention needs to be paid to the businesses that are in particular difficulty today.
President von der Leyen’s presence is clearly more than a formal and concrete sign of readiness to help, so I really wish to thank her again and shall now pass the floor to her. However, I would first like to apologise that I won’t be able to accompany her on her visit to see the situation, after seeing it from above, from the point of view of this region’s citizens. She will be going to Cesena, but we unfortunately have a Council of Ministers meeting so Minister [for European Affairs, Southern Italy, Cohesion Policy and the NRRP] Fitto will be accompanying her on behalf of the Government. President [of the Emilia Romagna Region] Bonaccini will of course also be going with her, whom I also wish to thank for his presence, helpfulness and attention. We are working very well at this time. 
I would like to just say this to President von der Leyen: when I came here last Sunday, the thing that struck me most, other than the extent of the devastation, was the reaction of the people. Here, you will find very proud people, who have already rolled their sleeves up, who are already working to rebuild, who are already reconstructing. People who have not lost heart, who are not giving up. As I have already said on another occasion, this makes us face our responsibility to do our best to support them as they deserve.

[Courtesy translation]