Green light of the Council of Ministers to the bill on the mountain

Roma. The council of ministers has given the green light to the bill on the development and enhancement of mountain areas. The measure, promoted by Minister Gelmini, who has the delegation on the mountain, introduces measures, including fiscal ones, to support the growth of mountain municipalities and to counteract their depopulation.

The provision introduces organic measures aimed at encouraging economic development and the recovery of many territories that will have the opportunity to increasingly become a resource for the country. Furthermore, it has the objective of contrasting the depopulation of the Italian mountains, gathering in a single and systematic text regulatory interventions for the reduction of the disadvantageous conditions of mountain municipalities.

Classification of mountain municipalities

The bill regulates the identification of mountain municipalities and regulates the additional parameters for accessing the incentives and support provided.

National Strategy for the Italian Mountain (Snami)

The Minister for Regional Affairs and Autonomies, through the National Strategy for the Italian Mountain (Snami), identifies the strategic lines for economic and social growth and development, the accessibility of essential services and digital infrastructures, effective enjoyment of the fundamental rights of the person in mountain areas. The Snami will be financed thanks to the Fund for the development of the Italian mountains (Fosmit) – in which the resources of the National Mountain Fund and the Supplementary Fund for Mountain Municipalities converge – for which the latest budget law provided for the allocation 100 million for 2022 (up from 29.5 million) and 200 million from 2023.

D’incà: not just resources

Minister Federico D’Incà is satisfied: “Not only economic resources but a new structure to promote life in the mountains and contrast the serious phenomenon of depopulation: the bill for the development and enhancement of mountain areas approved by the Council of Ministers relaunch and promote this important part of our country by strengthening services and encouraging small businesses and limiting both economic and social imbalances with respect to non-mountain areas. It is a very important step that confirms the Government’s attention to the mountains with positive and concrete repercussions for our communities ».

«With this provision», continues D’Incà, «some key measures are introduced for the improvement of services in mountain areas. Already with the budget law, important resources had been allocated through the Fund for the development of the Italian mountains which provided for an endowment of 100 million euros for the year 2022 and 200 million from the year 2023. Now the aim is to strengthen health, enhancing social and health professionals and professionals who work in mountain structures, schools, with a tax credit for those who work in mountain schools of all levels, in the protection of mountain pastures and with incentives for investments by farmers and mountain foresters ».

D’Incà continues: «Attention is also given to young people with fiscal measures for small and micro-enterprises, in addition to the introduction of the measure ‘I stay in the mountains’ to support residential care. Finally, among the novelties, attention is also paid to one of the strategic levers for the development of the territories, giving priority to digital with the coverage of the ultra-broadband infrastructure in the municipalities at risk of depopulation ».

According to the Minister for Relations with Parliament, this is «an important response to support the Mountains and build a future of development capable of improving the lives of citizens and, at the same time, promoting tourist attractiveness. We must seize all the new opportunities and be able to make the most of our beautiful valleys ».

Incentives for school and health care

«The shortage of general practitioners and teachers has always been a problem in the mountains. The new law intervenes in the right way to encourage the arrival and permanence of health and school professionals in the high lands ». This is what the deputy Dario Bond says, in relation to the bill drawn up by Minister Gelmini. «The law provides for study grants in favor of graduates in medicine and surgery and in health professions who exercise the health profession at health facilities in the mountains for the first three years after graduation. And still economic incentives and additional scores in competitions for doctors who work in mountain health care, but also reductions on rents. The same goes for teachers, who will have an additional score in the ranking for the service provided in mountain areas and concessions in house rentals. These are important measures that go in the direction of concretely solving two long-standing problems and that bury the services of the ‘high lands’. The shortage of doctors, especially for local medicine, has been a reason for the exodus of mountain populations in recent years, and for the impoverishment of hospitals. Similarly, the difficulty in finding teachers has caused an impoverishment of the educational offer for young people, aggravating the depopulation. Finally, the trend can be reversed. The hope is that these measures will be followed by others, in the spirit of the new law, which sees the mountain as a vital area for the country by virtue of the historical, environmental and cultural heritage it possesses “.

De Menech: stop depopulation

A law aimed at making the mountains more and more inhabited, in order to combat the age-old problem of mountain territories, that of depopulation ». This is according to the Belluno deputy of the Democratic Party, Roger De Menech. “In recent weeks, we have made numerous progress on the text,” explains De Menech. “It is the fruit of the work of many and among all I mention Enrico Borghi who is probably the most prepared colleague on these issues and the president of Uncem Marco Bussone”. For De Menech, “the chapter on mountain taxation is important, with a series of favorable measures for businesses set up by young people and the extensive benefits of the” I stay in the mountains “program, provided for those who buy their main home in a mountain municipality with a population of less than two thousand inhabitants “. The “National Strategy for the Italian mountains”, “called to define every three years’ the priorities and directives of the policies for the mountain areas in order to promote the growth and economic and social development of the territories” mountains, accessibility to digital infrastructures and essential services, with priority regard to socio-health and education ones, support for residential care, commercial activities and productive settlements, the repopulation of territories, taking into account, in a perspective of complementarity and synergy, of the territorial policies implemented as part of the strategy for internal areas ».

An important step

“The mountain ceases to be a periphery and remote place and fully enters the key areas of the country”. This is the comment of the president of the Province of Belluno Roberto Padrin. “As I was able to say when reading the first drafts, the added value of this law is the fact that there is no mention of mountain subsidies, but of homogeneous development of the areas, with particular attention to citizens and businesses, to keep people living in the so-called “highlands” ”, emphasizes President Padrin. «The territories become protagonists. And the Provinces can play a key role in implementing policies linked to their respective strategic plans that are well integrated within the framework of this law. As people from Belluno we know this well and have always supported it: the mountains are not only our home, but they are also an environmental, landscape, historical-cultural and social resource. Now we hope that the process will continue quickly and that there is full convergence on these issues “.

Confindustria satisfied

«It is an important signal that comes at a very delicate moment. The go-ahead for the framework bill on the mountain by the Government is a turning point that we have been waiting for for some time. Now it is up to Parliament to take the last step, approving the text definitively: do it as soon as possible because between the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the increase in energy and raw material costs, the mountains are becoming more vulnerable every day because already marked by deep-seated structural problems. There is no more time to waste ».

«The OK of the Government puts the point of a sharing process matured with all the subjects of the territory, first of all with the productive world. It has been understood, perhaps for the first time, that the mountains live only if the conditions exist to maintain and develop businesses, from manufacturing to services ”, Berton remarks. “This means creating those opportunities that are useful to curb the flight of young people and families: excellent and competitive companies, capable of creating opportunities and enhancing talents, are the first barrier against depopulation, a real evil of our lands”.

Confindustria Belluno Dolomiti participated in the working table set up by the Ministry for Regional Affairs and Autonomies through the director of the Andrea Ferrazzi Association: “We never asked for privileged treatments or welfare measures, but – simply – to have the same starting conditions of the other territories. We just want to compare ourselves as equals. At this point, I hope that the Chambers will now do their part without hesitating, also because there is a financial endowment approved by a financial law, moreover starting from the current year “, Berton recalls, referring to the 100 million euros foreseen by the last budget document for 2022 and 200 million for the following years.

Tool for families

«The new mountain law, long awaited by our territory, provides the right tools to counter depopulation and face the future of the highlands with optimism. If the international crisis subsides, the Belluno area will be able to have the development that the economic and social forces deserve ». This was stated by the president of Confartigianato Belluno, Claudia Scarzanella. «The new law aims above all at enhancing the unexpressed peculiarities and potential of the mountain, in particular on the agricultural front. But it also looks carefully at the development of the ultra-broadband network and of those services that businesses need ”continues President Scarzanella. «In this way it cuts down the distances between the valleys, but also between the Belluno area and the plain, allowing our territory to be attractive. Confartigianato Belluno will continue to push also on the front of advantageous taxation, which combined with the tools of the new law, can really make the territory make the leap in quality. For families and artisan businesses, which constitute an essential protection and service ».