With the aim of conservation and enhancement of the Palazzi, it has been considered appropriate to formalize an accord, which has powerful political and administrative validity, with an enlarged Protocol of Understanding, signed by the Cultural Heritage Ministry, the Commission for Architectural Heritage and the Ligurian Countryside, Genoa City Council, the Region of Liguria, the Province of Genoa, Palazzo Ducale Fondazione per la Cultura, the University of Genoa, and the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Crafts.
The Protocol was signed in Rome in the presence of the representatives of the bodies involved on 12 October 2005. In 2018, the institutions involved have drawn up and signed a new Memorandum of Understanding. Specifically, the new Memorandum acknowledges the Genoa City Council as the competent management body and details the roles and responsibilities of the other institutions involved. Associazione dei Rolli della Repubblica Genovese is also a signatory of the new Protocol.
The structure is directed by a Steering Committee made up of representatives of the bodies which have signed the Protocol itself, with political functions of defining strategies, approaches and priorities. This is the forum for updating the signatories of the Memorandum on the implementation of the Management Plan, for deciding on new developments of the Plan, and for discussing the resources provided by each of the bodies involved in the implementation of the Plan.
Set up within the Genoa City Council as the competent Site manager in charge of coordination, UNESCO Office and its director are entrusted, by the Mayor of Genoa acting as legal representative of the Site’s managing entity, with monitoring the implementation measures under the Management Plan.
The signatories of the Protocol of Understanding and members of the Steering Committee are:
- Comune di Genova
- Regione Liguria
- Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per la città metropolitana di Genova e le provincie di Imperia, La Spezia e Savona
- Segretariato Regionale del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali per la Liguria
- Palazzo Reale di Genova
- Università di Genova
- Camera di Commercio di Genova
- Palazzo Ducale Fondazione per la Cultura
- Associazione dei Rolli della Repubblica Genovese
The Steering Committee is essential to facilitate implementation of the management plan, because it encourages an open dialogue between institutions, monitors progress and results, and liaises with the director of the UNESCO Office with regard to any departures from or improvements to the measures planned or to the establishment of new measures.
The Steering Committee, made up of the signatories of the Memorandum of Understanding, makes it possible to define strategies, policies and priorities collegially; ensure greater involvement of the institutions in the active management of the Site; facilitate and speed up the circulation of information within the institutions involved; extend monitoring activities to all the institutions involved.
To operate effectively, the UNESCO Office has been established within the Economic Development, Strategic Innovation of the Genoa City Council. Said UNESCO Office acts as a link between the body’s technical-administrative facilities and the signatories of the Memorandum of Understanding.
