Mountains, Calderoli: 'Regions can support excluded municipalities'
On the agreement on how to implement the new unanimity criteria for territorial authorities
"We managed to find a reasonable solution that respects the principles of the law and the Constitution and the specificities of the territories. Behind this proposal there has been a great work of synthesis and balance'. This was stated by the Minister for Regional Affairs and Autonomies, Roberto Calderoli, emphasising that the agreement on the modalities for implementing the new criteria was unanimous among the territorial authorities.
When will the decree be officially approved?
We are working to bring this decree to the first useful Council of Ministers. The previous classification referred to a law of 1952 and among the parameters taken into consideration were even the bombings suffered during the world conflict. I emphasise this to give an idea of how outdated it was and how far removed from current reality. Action could, and should, have been taken to update this list, which included, for example, obvious distortions such as Rome and Bologna, with average heights of 67 metres for Rome and 82 metres for Bologna respectively.
The new criteria are geomorphological. Why were socio-economic fragilities not also taken into account?
The socio-economic issues will be taken into consideration by a second decree that we are already preparing and which will further detail who, among the municipalities recognised as mountainous, is entitled to receive the contributions provided for by law. In the list there are lands that experience real difficulties and lands that do not. Let me give a concrete and highly topical example: living in Cortina is certainly not comparable to living in a small municipality in the Val di Scalve. There are very different service guarantees and much more obvious depopulation problems. We are working to reduce the gaps and guarantee the right to essential services.
