The Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano will jointly take over the presidency of the European Union Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP) in 2022: Presidents Maurizio Fugatti and Arno Kompatscher both said they consider the recent decision taken by the Executive Board, which has to be officially confirmed by the General Assembly, but was voted unanimously by the Executive Board - and therefore certain - a great honour and intend to interpret the mandate as an important opportunity to work together in promoting sustainable development and innovation throughout the Alps.
"South Tyrol and Trentino could provide valuable impulses in many areas, thanks to their experience," commented the two Presidents
Maurizio Fugatti, then, made some remarks about the candidacy, which was accepted following the proposal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation: "The two Autonomous Provinces will represent EUSALP on behalf of Italy and, in view of a manifesto that we will present to all the territories involved in the strategy for the Alpine space at the beginning of our presidential term, we will intercept together the main topics, declining them for future strategies. The dimension in which we will move is that of trust and restart: the post-pandemic world will never be the same again: we have the responsibility to make the Alpine territories grow and project them into a new perspective.
"Great honour. We can give valuable impulses to the EU strategy for Alpine Space" Kompatscher and Fugatti
In his message of greeting to the Executive Board the President of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, Arno Kompatscher, said: "The mountains teach their inhabitants that they can only succeed through mutual trust and cooperation." He added that this also applies to the States, Regions and other organisations in the EUSALP network. "In the Alpine region, many living spaces are closely interlinked: from the mountain slopes to the metropolises on the upstream plains, from rural areas to urban centres. Only if we think about all of them and all of them together can we take forward the common concerns of the Alpine Arc".