The Mediterranean identity of Sicily. The role of Sicily for the promotion of development and cooperation in the EuroMed-African area.

Abstract

Sicily is the Mediterranean island par excellence. During the course of its history, due to its geographical position in the very heart of the Mediterranean, Sicily has been profoundly involved in all the events occurring in the internal sea and housed several peoples, from the Phoenicians to the Greeks, from the Romans to the Arabs, the Normans and the Spaniards. All these peoples left both tangible and intangible traces to the island, making what in this dissertation is referred to as the Mediterranean cultural heritage of Sicily. Such heritage and its strategic position are the main elements of the Mediterranean identity of the island. Due to said identity, Sicily has a great and partially unexplored potential to play a role in fostering dialogue and development in the Mediterranean, especially in the area between Sicily and North Africa. In order to frame its action, Sicily needs to comply with the European and Italian frameworks for the Mediterranean, which are examined in separate sections of this dissertation along with Sicilian Institutions and local actors contributing to Mediterranean cooperation. In particular, the case of a small Sicilian organisation, the District of Fisheries and Blue Growth, is analysed in details to show how, in the context of the Sicilian action, the local level can contribute to development processes in the Mediterranean.