Award points to unglamourous side of mafia: Poverty

At the centre of the poverty debate in Europe, lies the battle against the mafia – and not just in Italy.

This according to the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), which president, Mario Sepi, also a Vita Europe blogger, declared during the announcement of the two winners from this year’s civil society award last October 27.

Both winners, respectively Libera and Confindustria Sicilia, are Italian organisations working to fight against mafia and mafia related activities.

The first, Libera, is an alliance of over 1500 on the ground associations, schools and groups which are trying to build cultural, organisational and political synergies capable of spreading the culture of legality.  Their specific works go from the law on the social use of confiscated former mafia belongings to anti-mafia training camps.

The second, Confindustria Sicilia, the Sicilian industrial association, was applauded for its unequivocal work on denouncing all forms of mafia regulation and infiltration, as well as providing incentives for the propagation of legal behaviour towards enterprisers and forms of tangible punishment for those who engage in illegal activities.

The award was given in a very European context though, not a purely Italian one.  Indeed the framework within which mafia-like organisations has reached a global scale, with great help from globalisation.  Furthermore, although Italy is often taken as a popular case-study, it is by no means the only European country to have this kind of problem within its borders. 

It is in this way that the EESC, through the words of its president Mario Sepi, gave a distinctively European framework for this problem, unusually highlighting Italy and in particular, Italy’s civil society, as a best practice from which to draw inspiration.

“The mafias have taken advantage of globalisation to expand their operations and boost their presence in key sectors of the economy, including waste, construction, drug trafficking and public procurement in general,” Mr Sepi said Tuesday.

“Civil society has played a leading part in combating these attempts to eat away at the fabric of the economy and society and spread illegal behaviour, undermine economic development and infringe upon the rule of law.”

Events following the announcement of the award will take two different forms.  The first will be the award ceremony, to be held in Brussels next November 4, the second will be in Palermo Sicily on November 13, where all three organisations will be given a platform to talk.