The north-eastern city’s triumph was announced by the head of the Trieste International Foundation, Stefano Fantoni, at a press conference on Tuesday with Friuli Governor Debora Serracchiani and Trieste Mayor Roberto Dipiazza.
“It was not long work, but very hard, for which we must thank very many people," Fantoni said.
He added that the benefits for the local area would be "tremendous" and that the city would “show the Europeans how these things are done” when it hosts the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF), the largest biennial European meeting in research and innovation, in 2020.
Fantoni recognised the 164 letters of support for the bid, coming from an area inhabited by 250 million people and made up of Italy, Austria, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Montenegro, Czech Republic, Romania, Ukraine and Hungary.
Education Minister Valeria Fedeli said Trieste’s victory was a source of national pride.
With ANSA
