The Plenary Assembly of the CGIE (General Council of Italians Abroad) is currently underway in Rome. During the session, Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Giorgio Silli provided updates and key data about the relationship between Italy and Italians living abroad.

The Italian diaspora continues to grow: between April 2024 and April 2025, the number of Italian citizens living abroad increased by 3%, rising from 7,016,252 to 7,235,064. In the first four months of 2025 alone, over 185,000 passports were issued, along with nearly 62,000 electronic ID cards (CIEs)—a 9% increase over the same period in 2024. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has authorized 54 new non-EU locations to issue CIEs, with plans to enable 34 more by the end of 2025, ahead of the August 2026 deadline for phasing out paper ID cards.