How Pina Picierno and Carlo Corazza Helped Turn Ventotene Into a Global Democracy Forum

Key Points: European Parliament Vice-President Pina Picierno was the political architect and promoter of the Second Ventotene European Conference for Freedom and Democracy. Carlo Corazza, director of the European Parliament Liaison Office in Italy, played a central institutional and organizational role. Their joint invitation to Taiwan Vice President Bi-khim Hsiao also gave the 2026 conference greater international and diplomatic significance.

The Second European Conference of Ventotene for Freedom and Democracy, held from September 10 to 12, 2026, was more than another gathering of European officials. It brought together dissidents, democratic opposition figures, activists, journalists, intellectuals and international political figures around a common question: how should democracies respond to authoritarian pressure?

Two names were particularly important in making that happen: European Parliament Vice-President Pina Picierno and Carlo Corazza, director of the European Parliament Liaison Office in Italy.

Their roles were different but complementary. Picierno provided much of the political vision and public advocacy behind the initiative, while Corazza and the Parliament's Italian office helped translate that vision into an organized international event.

1. Pina Picierno Was the Political Driving Force Behind the Conference

Key Point: Official European Parliament material describes the Ventotene conference as an initiative conceived and promoted by Pina Picierno.

The clearest indication of Picierno's role comes from the European Parliament's own description of the conference. Its Italian office characterized the event as being conceived and promoted by the European Parliament vice-president.

That makes her role considerably larger than simply appearing as a senior official or giving an opening speech.

Picierno helped define the political purpose of the project. Her stated goal was to bring together people who confront authoritarian governments, attacks on the rule of law and political repression with writers, journalists, intellectuals and institutional leaders interested in defending a free and democratic Europe.

She also emphasized that the first Ventotene conference had created a network that continued operating after the event itself. According to her description, that network became involved in issues ranging from Russian interference to protecting dissidents and political prisoners.

In that sense, Picierno appears to have viewed Ventotene not merely as an annual conference but as the foundation of a continuing international democratic network.

2. Carlo Corazza Provided the Institutional and Organizational Backbone

Key Point: Corazza headed the European Parliament office responsible for organizing the conference and represented the Parliament's institutional commitment to the initiative.

Carlo Corazza's role was different. As director of the European Parliament Liaison Office in Italy, he represented the institutional structure capable of turning the political concept into an operational event.

The European Parliament stated that the conference was organized by its office in Italy, with support and cooperation from other European, regional and local institutions and civil-society organizations.

Corazza publicly framed the second conference as part of a much larger debate over Europe's future. He argued that defending European independence and liberal democracy needed to remain near the top of the political agenda.

This matters because political initiatives need more than prominent speakers. Someone has to coordinate institutions, participants, communications, venues and partnerships. Corazza's office supplied much of that infrastructure.

3. They Helped Build a Network Around Dissidents and Democratic Opposition

Key Point: The conference deliberately brought European institutions together with people directly confronting authoritarian governments and political repression.

The guest list illustrates what Picierno and Corazza were trying to build.

The conference program included prominent democracy advocates and opposition figures such as Yulia Navalnaya, Belarusian democratic opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk and Venezuelan activist Lorent Saleh.

Ahmad Massoud, associated with resistance to Taliban rule in Afghanistan, was also among the international voices highlighted by the organizers.

This mixture gave Ventotene a different character from a conventional European policy conference. Instead of discussing democracy entirely through institutions and government representatives, the conference deliberately placed people with direct experience of authoritarian repression inside the conversation.

That approach also connected the event with Ventotene's own history. During Italy's Fascist era, anti-fascist political prisoners including Altiero Spinelli were confined on the island. Spinelli later became one of the intellectual figures associated with postwar European integration.

4. The Choice of Ventotene Gave Their Message Historical Weight

Key Point: Ventotene was not simply a scenic conference venue. Its history turned the event into a symbolic argument about democracy, authoritarianism and European cooperation.

Holding the conference on Ventotene was an important part of its political message.

During World War II, Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi developed ideas contained in what became known as the Ventotene Manifesto while confined by the Fascist regime. The document advocated a new political structure for Europe capable of preventing the nationalist conflicts that had repeatedly devastated the continent.

Decades later, European integration developed through institutions very different from those imagined during the war, but Ventotene retained enormous symbolic importance.

By bringing modern dissidents and democratic activists to the island, the conference organizers linked contemporary struggles against authoritarianism with Europe's own historical experience of dictatorship and war.

That symbolism strengthened Picierno's message while giving Corazza's European Parliament office an unusually powerful setting for institutional outreach.

5. Their Invitation to Taiwan's Vice President Expanded the Conference's International Significance

Key Point: The joint invitation to Taiwan Vice President Bi-khim Hsiao showed that the conference's democratic network extended well beyond Europe.

Perhaps the clearest example of Picierno and Corazza working together was the participation of Taiwan Vice President Bi-khim Hsiao.

After returning to Taiwan, Hsiao said that she had attended the conference after receiving a joint invitation from Picierno and Corazza.

Her attendance significantly broadened the event's geopolitical reach.

Taiwan faces military pressure, gray-zone activity and diplomatic isolation from Beijing while maintaining a democratic political system. Giving its vice president a platform at a European democracy conference therefore connected Ventotene's discussion of authoritarianism with security challenges in East Asia.

Hsiao described Ventotene as historically meaningful because Europeans imprisoned there under authoritarian rule had imagined a different political future. She drew a parallel with Taiwan's own transition from authoritarian government to democracy.

Her participation therefore demonstrated something important about the organizers' ambitions. The conference was not designed solely as an internal European discussion. Picierno and Corazza were helping create connections among democratic actors facing very different forms of authoritarian pressure around the world.

Key Takeaways at a Glance

• Picierno supplied the political vision. European Parliament materials explicitly describe the conference as conceived and promoted by her.
• Corazza supplied institutional capacity. The European Parliament Liaison Office in Italy, which he directs, organized the conference.
• Both helped internationalize the event. Their joint invitation brought Taiwan Vice President Bi-khim Hsiao to Ventotene.
• Ventotene was deliberately symbolic. Its history connected today's democracy advocates with Europe's anti-fascist and integration movements.

Area	Pina Picierno	Carlo Corazza
Primary Role	Political architect and promoter	Institutional and organizational leader
European Parliament Position	Vice-President of the European Parliament	Director of the European Parliament Liaison Office in Italy
Conference Contribution	Developed and promoted its political mission	Helped organize and institutionalize the event
International Outreach	Engaged dissidents and democratic leaders	Supported institutional outreach and participation
Taiwan Connection	Jointly invited Vice President Bi-khim Hsiao	Jointly invited Vice President Bi-khim Hsiao

Why Their Roles Matter

The simplest way to understand the relationship is that Picierno appears to have supplied the political concept while Corazza helped supply the institutional mechanism needed to make it work.

That distinction matters. Conferences often disappear as soon as the microphones are switched off, a remarkable human achievement considering how much effort goes into producing name badges. Ventotene appears intended to do something more durable: create relationships among institutions, activists, dissidents and democratic political leaders that continue beyond a single gathering.

The participation of figures from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Afghanistan and Taiwan reinforced that ambition.

For Picierno, the conference became a platform for arguing that European democracy must actively support people confronting authoritarian systems. For Corazza, it demonstrated how the European Parliament's public-facing institutions could connect that political idea with international participants and a broader audience.

Together, their roles helped transform the Second Ventotene European Conference from a symbolic gathering on a historic Italian island into a more visible international forum about the defense of liberal democracy.

Sources

• European Parliament Liaison Office in Italy, “Second European Conference of Ventotene for Freedom and Democracy,” event announcement and program, updated September 10, 2026.
• European Parliament Liaison Office in Italy, announcement of the September 10–12, 2026 Ventotene conference, published July 13, 2026.
• Office of the President, Republic of China (Taiwan), remarks by Vice President Bi-khim Hsiao after returning from the Ventotene conference, September 14, 2026.