On 20 and 21 November, two seminars titled Territorial Autonomies in Comparative Practice of European States were held. The seminars were attended by the members of the Parliamentary Working Group from Chisinau and Comrat, representatives of the Secretariats of the Parliament and the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia including the legal, communication and human resources departments, international experts in the field of autonomies from South Tyrol, Italy, the Aland Islands, Finland and CMI – Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation.
Autonomy is a living, evolving concept that requires time and continuous commitment between central and autonomous authorities. The Autonomy of South Tyrol has been negotiated for almost 80 years and implemented successfully since 1972. The dialogue on autonomy continues with Rome even today, it is a work in progress with clear rules and procedural mechanisms that include parties from both levels of government.
said Elisabeth Alber
Territorial autonomy can be a tool for conflict resolution and requires sufficient time. The time was one of the many tools that helped the autonomy Aland Island to develop, over the 100 years. The mutual agreement between all the actors on the legal, fiscal, external dimensions and other sensitive topics is a clue for the autonomy development and its relations with the centre institutions.
mentioned Susann Simolin
The participants discussed the clarification of competences, decentralisation, political representation of autonomies in national legislative bodies, organisation of devolved competencies and services on the territory of autonomies through the comparative perspective of autonomies In Finland and Italy. They also discussed the position of the autonomies in relation to the European Union both from the perspective of the accession process of the countries but also how the European Union integration has helped the autonomies to strengthen their economies and their role they play in a greater regional context.
During the event, the participants stressed the importance of such capacity-building seminars during which public servants have the opportunity to learn from the comparative practices and the international models of functioning of autonomies and contextualise the knowledge in the context of building relations between central and Gagauz authorities.
The seminars were organized within the framework of the Gagauzia Dialogue project implemented by CMI- Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation with the support of Sweden.
