On September 8, 2004, as part of the international agreements taken by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Italian Republic (MAE), following the Euro-Mediterranean Conferences of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs held in Naples (December 2003) and in Dublin (May 2004 ), the Italian Network of the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures was established at the headquarters of the same Ministry in Rome (Palazzo della Farnesina). The MFA assumed the dual responsibility of member of the Board of Directors (Board) of the same Foundation and coordinator of the Italian Network, with substantial activity of supervision of international activities and guarantor of good functioning.
The MFA appointed the Mediterranean Foundation (also the Laboratorio Mediterraneo Onlus Foundation), as leader of the Italian Network of the "Anna Lindh Euromediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures", to which it delegated the operational tasks of coordination - in accordance with the rules of the ALF Secretariat - reserving the role of supervisor of the international activities of the Network and guarantor of its proper functioning.
Subsequently, the Fondazione Mediterraneo during the General Assembly of the Italian Network held in Venice on 23 and 24 May 2013, placed the strategic utility of transforming the Network, after almost ten years, to the attention of the members of the Italian Network of the ALF Italian in a subject having legal status according to the Italian legislation, thus constituting a more representative body with defined rules of organization and management, also in accordance with the recommendations of the Steering Committee of the same Italian Network which established the deadline for the establishment of such a body.
This proposal, in reality, found its first conception already at the time of the establishment of the Italian Network on 8 September 2004, when the same MAE expressed the hope that the Network, after a period of activities carried out at unofficial and informal level, could be transformed into an autonomous body by the MFA and the lead organization, established according to the Italian legal systems, in order to ensure full autonomy and legitimacy, in line with the provisions of the Statute of the "Euro-Mediterranean Anna Lindh Foundation" which assigns to the Ministries Foreign Affairs of each country autonomy on the coordination and management of the respective national networks and full legitimacy of the Italian Network.
On September 13, 2013, in Naples, at the headquarters of the Fondazione Enrico GRANARA , as Coordinator of Euro-Mediterranean Activities at the Directorate General of Political Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), Michele CAPASSO , in As President and legal representative of the Fondazione Mediterraneo, Marco SANTANGELO , as President and legal representative of Paralleli-North-West Euromediterranean Institute, and Roberto RUSSO , as President and legal representative of Fispmed Onlus, signed the memorandum of association of the Italian Euro-Mediterranean Dialogue Network thus constituting a non-governmental association of social utility precisely called "RIDE-Italian Network for the Euro-Mediterranean Dialogue Onlus". Despite the word ONLUS, the Net was not born however as such but assumed the initial form of a non-governmental body of social utility suitable to operate on the whole territory of the European Union and of the Mediterranean countries without profit and pursuing exclusively aims of social solidarity.
On 11 September 2015, at the MAECI, together with the Advisory Council meeting of the Anna Lindh Foundation (ALF), the General Assembly of the "RIDE-Italian Network for Euro-Mediterranean Dialogue" met. The meeting was attended by 36 representatives of the main associations belonging to the Network who addressed the following fundamental issues, as reported in the minutes of the Assembly : the relaunch and orientation of the Network's action for the coming years; the rationalization of the organization and management mechanisms; the reorganization of internal and external communication to the Network; the definition of action and research guidelines for the two-year period 2016-2017 also in relation to the general strategy of the ALF; the election of the members of the new Executive Committee for the two-year period 2015-2017.During the afternoon session, the Assembly elected the seven new elected members of the Executive Committee, who joined the three original members (MAECI, FONDAZIONE MEDITERRANEO AND FISPMED), in charge of programming the RIDE activities for the 2015 period -2017: Foad Aodi, Salvatore Calleri, Janiki Cingoli, Luigi De Luca, Maria Amata Garito, Enrico Molinaro and Giovanni Serra. During the RIDE Assembly the President of the ALF Elisabeth Guigou also intervened who, in reiterating the importance of strengthening the civil society activities of the wider Mediterranean community, recognized the fundamental role of the Italian Network, starting from its contribution to the birth and development of the Foundation itself. In a historical moment marked by dramatic events, the ten members of the Executive Committee have unanimously proposed the reorganization of the Italian Network-RIDE ALF so that it can provide the maximum contribution to Italian and European activities for a true revival of cultural dialogue with the networks of civil society of the other shores of the Mediterranean.
During the first meeting of the newly elected RIDE Executive Committee held on 29 September 2015, as reported in the minutes , the Head of Information Office in Italy of the European Parliament (EP) Gianpaolo Meneghini announced the EP's commitment to strengthening the collaboration with RIDE, in view of an expansion of the network between institutions and civil society, and the re-launch of the “country system” through a joint management of the challenges and opportunities launched by the immigration phenomenon and other issues for public attention.
che si sono andati ad aggiungere ai tre soci originari (MAECI, FONDAZIONE MEDITERRANEO E FISPMED), incaricati della programmazione delle attività della RIDE per il periodo 2015-2017: Foad Aodi, Salvatore Calleri, Janiki Cingoli, Luigi De Luca, Maria Amata Garito, Enrico Molinaro e Giovanni Serra. Nel corso dell’Assemblea RIDE è’ intervenuta anche la Presidente della ALF Elisabeth Guigou che, nel ribadire l’importanza di rafforzare le attività della società civile della più ampia comunità del Mediterraneo, ha riconosciuto il fondamentale ruolo della Rete italiana, a partire dal suo contributo alla nascita e allo sviluppo della stessa Fondazione. In un momento storico segnato da eventi drammatici, i dieci membri del Comitato Esecutivo si sono unanimemente proposti la riorganizzazione della Rete Italiana-RIDE ALF affinché questa possa fornire il massimo contributo alle attività italiane ed europee per un vero rilancio del dialogo culturale con le reti della società civile delle altre sponde del Mediterraneo.
Nel corso della prima riunione del neo-eletto Comitato esecutivo RIDE svoltasi il 29 settembre 2015, come dal verbale riportato, il Capo Ufficio d’Informazione in Italia del Parlamento europeo (PE) Gianpaolo Meneghini ha annunciato l’impegno del PE per il rafforzamento della collaborazione con la RIDE, in vista di un ampliamento del network tra istituzioni e società civile, ed il rilancio del “sistema paese” attraverso una gestione congiunta delle sfide e delle opportunità lanciate dal fenomeno immigrazione e delle altre tematiche all’attenzione del pubblico.