Saturday 30th April 2022 – Hon. Mariastella Gelmini, Minister for Regional Affairs and Autonomies with responsibility for the mountains, met mountain stakeholders at UNIMONT – Centre of excellence at the Mountain Campus of the University of Milan, as part of a meeting promoted by ANCI Lombardy and ANCI Piedmont in Edolo, a small town in the Alps.
“In 2022 we will have 100 million euros, which will become 200 from 2023, to finance intervention in mountain areas. Through the resources of the RRP and through the new framework law on the mountains we want to provide a strategy for relaunching these territories that have too often been abandoned.”
This was the comment of Mariastella Gelmini, Minister for Regional Affairs and Autonomies, speaking to journalists during the conference “Parliamentary bill for mountains and green communities: new development prospects for mountain municipalities”, organized in Edolo (Brescia) at the UNIMONT Center of the University of Milan by Luca Masneri, Mayor of the Municipality of Edolo and Coordinator of the National Technical Board for the new law regarding mountain areas.
The meeting was opened by the Rector of the University of Milan Elio Franzini, who underlined the commitment of the University of Milan in the promotion of research, teaching and third mission activities for the development of knowledge and training for Italian mountain communities. This commitment, Elio Franzini emphasized, also includes the consolidation of the training offer of UNIMONT, which will launch in the academic year 2022/23 a new International Master’s Degree in Valorization and Sustainable Development of Mountain Areas (LM-73) and a First Level Master in Project Management for Mountain Areas. Contributions were also made by Ilario Sabbadini, Comunità Montana di Valle Camonica and Mayor of the Municipality of Corteno Golgi; Elio Moretti, President of the Province of Sondrio and Dario Corvi, Mayor of the Municipality of Aprica. Anna Giorgi, Coordinator of the Degree Course in Development and Protection of the Mountain Environment – UNIMONT Centre of the University of Milan; Martina Mauri and Giovanni Di Paolo, students of the undergraduate course in Edolo – and the lawyer Francesco Cesare Palermo, member of the National Technical Board for the Mountains, underlined relevant aspects which encourage entrepreneurship and the presence of young people in mountain areas contained in the Mountain Law.
“The issue of depopulation of mountain areas is very close to the government’s heart, and we are working together with mayors, presidents of mountain communities, presidents of provinces and presidents of regions because we want to reverse that trend and build a strategy that is not only compensation, but also development and growth. With the new Bill, we have provided for intervention for mountain professions and to guarantee services also in these territories. Services that above all mean health and school. Health workers and teachers working in mountain areas will have extra career points. We want a normal work, family, social and economic life to be possible even in the mountains: the framework law approved a few weeks ago by the Council of Ministers is a fundamental tool for achieving these objectives”, concluded Hon. Gelmini.
Stakeholders of mountain areas also intervened: Massimo Sertori, Councilor for Local Authorities, Mountain and Small Municipalities of the Lombardy Region and Alessandro Mattinzoli, Councilor for Housing and Social Housing of the Lombardy Region – who underlined the importance of investing in services for the population residing in mountain areas; Alessandro Panza, MEP – who highlighted the need for a strategic vision for the development of mountain areas also at a European level; Bruno Bettinsoli, President of the Small Municipalities and Mountain Department of ANCI Lombardia and Mayor of the Municipality of Lodrino; Stefano Costa, Vice President of ANCI Piedmont and Tiziano Maffezzini, President of UNCEM Lombardy.
At the end of the event, a round table was held which saw the participation of other experts in mountain areas including Andrea Ferrazzi, Director of Confindustria Belluno Dolomiti; Gionni Gritti, President of Confartigianato Imprese Sondrio; Giuseppe Cuc, President of the National College of Ski Instructors and Martino Peterlongo, National Instructor of Alpine Guides and President of the College of Trentino Alpine Guides.