Tyrol in Europe
The Federal State of the Tyrol, as a regional administrative body with legislative power, has an interest to exert influence on the EU legislation. One has to know that 75% of the European Union legal acts have to be transposed at local and regional level. The Representation of the Tyrol in Brussels, which is organized in the governmental department of South Tyrol and External Relations, tries to ensure this influencing control by intensive lobbying and networking. Christian Bidner is the head of the Representation. A further important element to bring Tyrolean requests into the European Union legislation process is the activity of MEP Richard Seeber and MEP Eva Lichtenberger.
The Governor of the Tyrol, Herwig van Staa, represents Tyrol in the Committee of the Regions. Local and regional administrative entities are represented by this consultative body in the institutional structure of the European Union. In case of legislative proposals which have effects at local and regional level, the Commission and the Council have to request the Committee of the Regions for an opinion. Among other things, this is necessary for Tyrol in important policy areas such as traffic, environment, economic and social co-operation, employment policy and infrastructural networks.
The guidelines of the Tyrolean EU-policies are summarized in the annual report of the Governor on European integration and external relations. This report describes the strategies concerning the EU-policies and the position of the Tyrolean government as regards the most important issues. The emphasis lies on topics like energy policy, traffic, structural and agricultural policies. In the field of energy policy, Tyrol supports the European Commission and the European Council (action plan for energy efficiency) in reducing the energy consumption at European level by 20% until 2020. In addition, a stronger consideration of hydroelectric energy as a renewable energy source is indispensable.
Directly connected with environmental issues is the topic “traffic and transport”, which is particularly important in Tyrol as it is a very sensitive alpine region. Tyrol also supported the Eurovignette Directive which came into effect on the 10th of June 2005. This allows the government to charge toll as a reimbursement for health affection and environmental damage. The Eurovignette Directive allows also to charge toll up to 25% more on traffic routes in mountain areas. These additional incomes must then be reinvested in projects of European interest, like the ones concerning the construction of railway routes. In case of the “Brenner-Basis Tunnel”, the European Union will probably finance 20% of construction costs. A total amount of 960 million Euros is about to flow into the tunnel project.
For Tyrol another substantial issue is the structural policy of the EU. The goal of economic and social coherence is embodied in the articles 158 and 160 EEC, and is financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). In the new budget period “2007-2013”, Tyrol will profit from structure conveyances which amount to 73 million Euros. 25 million Euros are available for the stabilization of the competitiveness of enterprises and regions, 21 million Euros are on hand for interregional cooperation. Furthermore, 17 million Euros provided by the program “LEADER” (for rural area development) are at Tyrol’s disposal.
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