Representatives of the Italians Abroad - Committee of Italians Abroad (COM.IT.ES)
Instituted with the Law no. 205/1985, subsequently modified with the Law n. 172 /90, and by the Law 286 /2003, COMITES, which are elected directly by the Italians abroad, are the representatives of our collective communities.
They operate within each consular jurisdiction where at least 3,000 Italian citizens reside, or where there is a diplomatic representative if there are no Consular offices.
The elected members, who must have Italian citizenship, are 12 for the communities, which have 100,000 co-nationals, and 24 for those above 100,000 co-nationals. Along with the elected members, there are four co-opted members, selected directly by the elected members from a pool of nominations presented by the local Italian associations; they have to be non-Italian citizens but of Italian origin, residing within the Consular jurisdiction, and cannot exceed one thrd of the elected components of the elected committee.
All the COMITES members have a mandate for 5 years and are eligible for election for only two mandates.
Tasks and Functions
In the first instance, COMITES, in collaboration with the consular authorities, agencies, associations and committees operating in the Consular jurisdiction, promotes suitable initiatives in matters relating to social and cultural life, education, recreation, sport and social welfare of the Italian community residing within that jurisdiction.
Moreover, it also expresses opinions, proposals and suggestions on the initiatives that the Consular authorities undertakes in favour of the community.
COMITES carries out the necessary advisory functions that help formulate the compulsory and motivating opinions on the proposals and requests for funding which are presented by the various Italian associations which are operating in the Consular jurisdiction.
COMITES has to constantly cooperate with the Consular authorities to look after the protection of rights and interests of the emigrated citizens, within the norms of the local and international legislations. The committee is also responsible to advise the Consular authorities of any eventual violations of the International Convention regarding Italians working abroad.