Description
Since the entry into force of the second Statute of Autonomy of the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol Region, the Province of Trento has seen a gradual extension of the competences it holds. This is a true 'refounding of autonomy' that not only affects every sphere of public life but also, as pointed out in 1973 by the then President of the Province Bruno Kessler, the very identity of the territory.
In the face of epochal transformations in the socio-economic, cultural and customary spheres, autonomy offered the Trentino people the chance to guide the development of a historically poor and backward territory to the point of making it affluent and attractive. The potential and the spaces left by the new autonomous structure are thus interpreted by the provincial government as a laboratory for experimenting innovative and original policies with respect to the national context.
Such experimentation does not always lead to positive results: the realisation of the autonomy imagined through district decentralisation clashes, for example, with both local and national institutional resistance. The considerable growth in the funds at its disposal, as well as the presence of the public body in most economic sectors, also raise important questions about the long-term effectiveness of dirigiste and welfarist policies.
Beyond the critical issues and political debate, since 1972 the exercise of autonomy in Trentino has been characterised by the adoption of measures that transform the territory and society, leading to widespread prosperity. Land management and protection, which became central after the Stava disaster in 1985, the care and protection of linguistic minorities, active labour policies, agriculture, financial autonomy, transport, tourism, education and health are sectors in which the Province is committed to benefiting from the spaces guaranteed by the Statute.
Nevertheless, Trentino's autonomy is beginning to take on an increasingly international dimension. Trentino thus participates in the first forms of cross-border cooperation in the Alpine (Arge-Alp and Alpe-Adria) and European (Assembly of European Regions) spheres, nevertheless committing itself to issues of solidarity and development cooperation. This path, which began in the 1980s, culminated in the establishment of the EGTC (European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation) Euregio Tirol-South Tyrol-Trentino, which was created to tackle major challenges of the globalised world through cross-border cooperation.
