For over twenty years, the Foundation for Subsidiarity has been engaged in research, training, and dissemination activities through a broad network of national and international collaborations, with the aim of making subsidiary culture a shared value.

Subsidiarity can be defined as a way of thinking and a practice that allows the contribution of all to be integrated into a system for the construction of the common good, enabling relationships of collaboration rather than opposition or competition between different entities.

Thanks in part to our work, the principle of subsidiarity was explicitly included in the Italian Constitution in 2001, while the Maastricht Treaty had already recognized it as a fundamental principle of the European Union in 1992.

Subsidiary culture expresses a positive idea of the person and their initiative. For this reason, it is cross-cutting, unifying, and can serve as a valuable driving force in a moment of distrust and uncertainty, such as the present.

The most recent years have convinced us that the culture of subsidiarity is even more necessary today than when we started, particularly as a tool for sustaining democratic systems and as a stimulus for sustainable development in response to the crisis brought about by neoliberalism.

The Rimini Meeting is an important opportunity for the Foundation to disseminate and engage in dialogue with a broad audience on the institutional, political, social, and economic issues we work on throughout the year.

At the last edition of the Meeting, for example, we held a discussion with Augusto Barbera, President of the Italian Constitutional Court, on the relevance of the Italian Constitution as a reference for addressing the challenges that are engaging our country and the world. Together with José Barroso, former President of the European Commission, and Branko Milanovic, economist and professor at City University of New York, we addressed one of the topics closest to our hearts: the problems of the dominant economic development model and the inequalities it produces, questioning which policies should be implemented to correct it.

The theme of economic development, addressed with the Governor of the Bank of Italy, Fabio Panetta, opened up important reflections, particularly regarding the future and survival of the welfare state and the universality of its services.

These issues were also the focus of the talk "Living Longer, Living Better: Welfare at a Crossroads," a three-part series hosted by Enrico Castelli and Irene Elisei, featuring scholars, politicians, and experts such as Nadia Urbinati, Giancarlo Blangiardo, Stefano Bonaccini, and Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia.

2025 will see the Foundation engaged on multiple fronts, including:

• The presentation of the new Report on Subsidiarity, dedicated to local welfare.
• The preparation of a new research report on healthcare.
• The School of Political Training "Knowing to Decide", organized in collaboration with Società Umanitaria and Associazione Futuri Probabili founded by Luciano Violante, on the theme "The Risks of Democracy and the Lessons of the Past."
• A new cycle of the School of Subsidiarity, dedicated to the theoretical and practical training of civil servants and nonprofit operators on co-design and co-programming.

These and other activities will allow us to develop new thought on the common good, which we hope will also enrich the 2025 edition of the Rimini Meeting.