“Minorities are a bridge between nations and cultures”. This is the innovative value\u00a0contained in\u00a0the De Gasperi-Gruber Treaty that Paolo Gentiloni, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, wishes to highlight\u00a0on the occasion of its 70th anniversary.<\/p>\n
Minister Gentiloni, the 5th of\u00a0September\u00a0is the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the De Gasperi-Gruber Treaty. What should be the future role of the special autonomous region\u00a0of Trentino Alto Adige\u00a0in an Italian and European context?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>“Seventy years after its\u00a0signing, the De Gasperi-Gruber Treaty\u00a0still preserves its innovative and modernizing drive. In a global, European an Mediterranean context, where open and “frozen” conflicts multiply, it stands as a point of reference to help us solve crises involving ethnic and linguistic minorities. It is an\u00a0agreement that has allowed us to turn an area of conflict and friction into a\u00a0region of peace and development within the framework of\u00a0the process\u00a0to build\u00a0Europe.\u00a0Thanks to\u00a0the principles of cooperation and integration that the De Gasperi-Gruber Treaty enshrines, it stands as a warning against Europe’s\u00a0growing risk\u00a0of going back to closing its\u00a0borders and nationalistic reasoning.”<\/p>\n Italy’s President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, said that “autonomy is not an undeserved privilege, but it certainly\u00a0lays down\u00a0additional responsibilities.” In what way\u00a0can Trentino Alto Adige\u00a0put\u00a0these additional responsibilities into practice?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>“Of course it’s not up to me to interpret the words of the Head of State. I can only say that his words effectively grasp the political value of the status of\u00a0autonomy of the Trentino Alto Adige region. In addition to awarding the same rights conferred to Italian-speaking people also to the populations speaking minority languages, the status of autonomy confers to the\u00a0region\u00a0extensive\u00a0legislative and executive powers. The innovative value of the De Gasperi-Gruber Treaty was precisely that of endowing the special autonomous region with effective instruments\u00a0enabling\u00a0minorities\u00a0to\u00a0act as a bridge between\u00a0different nations and cultures; very important instruments therefore, to be\u00a0responsibly enforced in the respect of the founding values of the European Union.”\u00a0<\/p>\n President\u00a0Mattarella also cited\u00a0\u00abthe\u00a0political proposal of a federation\u00bb championed by\u00a0De Gasperi, acknowledging that the project \u00abremains the only one\u00a0that is\u00a0historically\u00a0valid\u00bb. How far are we from\u00a0achieving this\u00a0target and what must Europe do to meet current challenges?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n “De Gasperi was a man of vision as when he called the construction of a united Europe\u00a0‘a myth of peace’. It is a project\u00a0that is currently going through a very delicate phase, which clearly cannot be\u00a0overcome by\u00a0merely making\u00a0rethoric declarations. Rather, we should\u00a0all give factual\u00a0proof that the European Union and our democracies are able to effectively respond to our citizens’ concerns, above all on security, immigration and economic growth.\u00a0On the\u00a0issue of\u00a0security, we have launched a proposal to establish a “Schengen Defence agreement” and we must press ahead in jointly\u00a0fighting\u00a0the terrorism\u00a0perpetrated by\u00a0Daesh and the symbolic attraction it also\u00a0exerts in Europe. In\u00a0relation to immigration, a phenomenon\u00a0we know\u00a0is\u00a0bound to\u00a0be long-lasting,\u00a0we need the EU to\u00a0make a\u00a0collective effort\u00a0to\u00a0welcome those who are eligible to stay and repatriate all others.\u00a0We also need to make a\u00a0long-term investment in Africa, as postulated by\u00a0Italy’s “Migration Compact” proposal. Finally, growth: we must give new momentum to investments, complete the establishment of the European Banking Union, strengthen\u00a0the single market and create a European insurance against unemployment.”<\/p>\n In less than a month Austria will return to the polls\u00a0to repeat\u00a0the presidential election ballot and one of the two candidates represents the Country’s\u00a0 right-wing nationalist party; in Hungary citizens will be called upon\u00a0to say whether they accept the Union’s quota\u00a0system <\/strong>for the distribution of\u00a0refugees. These are two critical events that may fuel\u00a0nationalist drives right after the almost tragic event of a few months ago, when Austria announced its intention to build a wall at the Brenner Pass. Does that worry you?\u00a0 Is there a possibility\u00a0that Austria\u00a0might again propose\u00a0the same\u00a0solution? <\/strong><\/p>\n “As regards the ballot for the Austrian presidential elections, whatever\u00a0comes out of the polls will in no way undermine either\u00a0the fruitful cooperation between Rome and Vienna or the need to continue to work together\u00a0towards our common European ideals. Due to its historical geopolitical and economic relevance, Austria is and will remain for us a fundamental partner also\u00a0on the\u00a0migration issue. From this point of view, the Brenner Pass\u00a0represents for us a bridge and\u00a0certainly\u00a0not a barrier between Italy, Austria and Europe. Italy will do everything necessary for it\u00a0to continue to be a symbol of integration.”<\/p>\n As\u00a0for the constitutional referendum, the Democratic Party – PD – has taken a cautious and in some cases negative stand. This is also\u00a0true for the Trentino Alto Adige region\u00a0because there is\u00a0concern that a centralistic reform may weaken the Special <\/strong>Autonomy <\/strong>Status. What\u00a0message would you like to convey\u00a0to the\u00a0inhabitants of this region?<\/strong><\/p>\n “The reform does not rest on a centralistic structure; rather it is focused on simplicity. We are working to build a simpler Country, capable\u00a0of making decisions with greater speed and\u00a0transparency. The constitutional reform is a step in this direction, especially if we consider that competing competencies between the State and non-autonomous regions\u00a0have often\u00a0caused\u00a0confusion and\u00a0disputes in the past. Trentino Alto Adige’s Special Status of Autonomy is an important development factor and it\u00a0is protected\u00a0under\u00a0the reform.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“Minorities are a bridge between nations and cultures”. This is the innovative value\u00a0contained in\u00a0the De Gasperi-Gruber Treaty that Paolo Gentiloni, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, wishes to highlight\u00a0on the occasion of its 70th anniversary. Minister Gentiloni, the 5th of\u00a0September\u00a0is the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the De Gasperi-Gruber Treaty. What should be the future […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[9,76],"class_list":["post-23410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviste","tag-europa","tag-ministri-precedenti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}