ITALY – The Milan Expo 2015 has a green light to register at the upcoming general assembly of the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE), after resolving a land dispute.
Milan authorities have confirmed that the concerns raised by six of the 155 BIE member states on the availability of the Expo areas have been assuaged after two major landowners reached an agreement with the Milan municipality.
France, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Canada and Japan all submitted requests for clarification, but special commissioner for the Expo and mayor of Milan, Letizia Moratti, said the city had won BIE's official recommendation for registration as the next World Expo.
"We’ve got green lights for the recording," she said at a press conference, “we answered all the questions and made a very detailed presentation.”
After formal registration, the Milan council presidency will send invitation letters to BIE's countries and begin negotiations with those interested in participating in Milan Expo.
Expo 2015 chief executive Giuseppe Sala said the important thing now “is to agree on those contractual relationships that we built on an informal basis," adding the road to making an innovative expo, from the construction of buildings to technology and content, was a difficult one.
The event follows this year’s World Expo in Shanghai.
