The scientific technical table, coordinated by Minister Gelmini, will have to advance the bill before the end of the year. Padrin: “We need to find more services to allow the kids to stay”
BELLUNO. A technical-scientific table to arrive, by the end of the year, at a national law proposal on the theme of the mountains with the aim of relaunching an area increasingly afflicted by depopulation. This is what was announced by the Minister for Regional Affairs, Mariastella Gelmini. The committee, coordinated by Luca Masneri, mayor of Edolo (Brescia), is made up of 40 members including researchers, jurists, professionals and trade associations (ski instructors, CAI, national mountain guide college).
“There is a need to materialize the path undertaken with the General States of the Mountain, which, through the involvement of all the main national stakeholders, has made it possible to map the multifaceted needs concerning the Italian mountains”, said Gelmini opening the works . “Now we have to go from mapping problems to identifying solutions.” «The National Strategy of the Italian Mountains – he emphasized -, aims to address the issue of the development of mountain territories in an organic way. It is also necessary to prepare a New Law for the Mountains capable of providing a precise definition of a mountain municipality, in fact today we find more definitions of the legal mountain ». The minister also announced the birth of 30 green communities which “although already foreseen by the financial law for 2016 – he explained -, had not so far found any concretization in terms of financial planning”.
Satisfaction was expressed by all conference participants. “The development of the mountains is the development of the whole country, it is an opportunity,” said Massimiliano Fedriga, president of the Conference of Regions and Friuli Venezia-Giulia. «For many years the institutions have looked at mountain policies as something that could not bear fruit. Today, finally, the perspective has changed. Specific policies are needed, it cannot be inconvenient to live or invest in the mountains. It is necessary to exploit the potential that is not only related to tourism. Some regions have made specific policies to encourage investment. We have to be fast but with a clear strategy ».
Fighting depopulation to ensure that our young people remain in these territories: this is the appeal launched by Roberto Padrin, president of the Province of Belluno, present for the Union of Provinces. “We must find more services to allow the children to stay here – he concluded -. Belluno, for example, does not have a university. And when the young people leave, they never come back. 80% stay in the big cities because mountain places lack these services that we absolutely must bring ».