Political representatives of the region Trentino – South Tyrol claim that their model of autonomy can be “exported” to other countries, and exactly this “model” has attracted the attention of the Serbian Steering team in drafting the Statute of the future Community of Serbian municipalities in Kosovo (ZSO).
How the model works in practice, explains Thomas Widmann, president of the Parliament of South Tyrol: “Autonomous Region of Trentino – South Tyrol consist of two provinces – Trentino and Bolzano. The region has a legal status within the political structure of the Republic of Italy. A series of legislative and administrative jurisdictions was transferred to the South Tyrol with Statute from 1972.”
Widmann explained that the province has primary and secondary jurisdictions, but that also there are State responsibilities. The primary jurisdictions include culture, kindergartens, social issues, roads, local and public transport, housing, tourism, manufacturing, trade, industry, agriculture, civil defence and natural parks. Within these areas, the South Tyrol can make laws regardless of state laws.
The secondary jurisdictions include sport, education and health, while the defence, police, justice and finance are “in the hands” of state.
When asked which similarities can be found between the ZSO and South Tyrol, the head of the Parliamentary Committee for Kosovo, Milovan Drecun said that the ZSO will be independent legal and political entity with economic jurisdiction, as stipulated by the Brussels Agreement: “ZSO will have characteristics of the various autonomy models worldwide, but I see it as a unique model.”
Dušan Proroković, former state secretary for Kosovo, said that all autonomies were established in a different manner, so that the ZSO should be something original. However, as first a political dimension should be solved so that it could be established to whom the ZSO belongs: to the state of Kosovo or Serbia. The first case implies that Kosovo’s independence was accepted.
Trentino – South Tyrol is one of the richest areas in the Europe. The budget is around five billion euros a year and the main budget revenues are taxes. Nine-tenths of these revenues remain in the budget and one-tenth is paid to Rome. When asked whether the economic success should be attributed to the autonomy, Widmann said: “This could be the correct conclusion, even when taking into account all of our natural resources. Almost six million people come here on holiday, and we have half a million citizens.
