TRENT. The project “Building Europe with local councillors” (Nice is the English acronym) launched by European Commission creates a European network of local political representatives aimed at communicating on European issues on the basis of ainnovative alliance between the European and local governance levels.
A role without refunds And without token to share the European spirit; a role that is not “political” but institutionalto transmit knowledge and network with a structure dynamics and supranational that can help local realities grow.
And there are 5 representatives from Trentino already protagonists of this dense network: Gianni Saiani (Ala councillor), Arianna Miorandi (city councilor of Rovereto), Giuseppe Giuliani (city councilor of Riva del Garda), Giovanna Chiarani (mayor of the Municipality of Drena) e Michael Rech (mayor of the Municipality of Folgaria).
“This supranational exchange of local good practices e know-how – he actually commented Michael Rech – it adds to a continuous work of communication and diffusion of initiativesa debate with citizens and also i local media. To give a couple of very concrete examples, last year every 18 year old could apply for a free train ticket for trips to discover other European countries and through our information channels locals we have worked to make the children of our community aware of this initiative. Or in recent days we have organized together with the community of Cimbrian plateaus an information evening to introduce, especially to younger people, how the various European institutions work”.
For the mayor of Folgaria the “spark” was born last year when the consortium of municipalities it was a Brussels visiting theEuregio and then to European Parliament.
“In the European institutions – he added Rech – there is a climate of trust and cooperation: we do Politics with a capital “p”. But this hope and this desire to innovate and become promoters of a change must start from small communities and come on individual citizens: sometimes we mistakenly think that at a local level we cannot make a difference big complex themes, however this is not the case. It is essential for us local councilors to be able to involve the citizens and make them active and receptive”.
