Significant progress has recently been made between France and Italy in the area of cross-border cooperation.
Firstly, in the field of natural spaces, the National Park of Mercantour and the "Alpi Marritime" Natural Park, which meet at the border and have been twinned since 1987, have just launched work to draw up an integrated cross-border plan for 2010-2013*.
Furthermore, following the transposition of the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) into Italian law (see below), the Inter-national Marine Park of the "Bouches de Bonifacio", between Corsica and Sardinia, has been able to advance with its project to form a common management structure. The statutes for the creation of an EGTC are currently being drafted in close cooperation with all the partners**. This project's Franco-Italian steering committee should meet before the end of the year.
Finally, following the fires which afflicted Corsica and Sardinia this summer, France and Italy have appealed to the "European Forest Fire Tactical Reserve" within a European civil protection framework. This mechanism will allow them to make joint use of two canadairs***.
Transposition of EGTCs into Italian law
This summer the Italian authorities adopted legal provisions regarding EGTCs. The law (No. 88/2009), which came into force on 29th July 2009, still has to be completed by an inter-ministerial decree establishing the budgetary and accounting rules of EGTCs. Following this the provisions laid down in this decree will have to be integrated in the Franco-Italian EGTC statutes. Requests for the creation of an EGTC should be sent to the General-Secretariat of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers in Italy which will decide, following the assent procedure conducted by the Ministries and Ministerial Departments concerned (including the Foreign Ministry, Ministry of the Interior, Economic Development, Presidency of the Council-Department for European Policies and Regional Affairs…).
* www.parks.it/parco.alpi.marittime
** www.parcmarin.com
*** www.ec.europa.eu/environment/civil/index.htm
Source: Cross-border news, No. 52, September 2009
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