The Presidents of around 15 Alpine regions of Germany, Austria, France, Italy and Switzerland (Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, Rhone-Alpes, Lombardy, Piedmont, Valle d'Aosta, Trento, South Tyrol, Salzburg, Tyrol, Bavaria, Baden Wuerttemberg and the Canton of St. Gallen) have decided to create a “People's Europe", a macro-region of the Alps, in order to "establish common policies capable of reshaping regional and supra-national collaboration,” writes Il Fatto Quotidiano. This area, the paper explains, is "among the richest and most industrialised of the world, home to 70 million people and the major industries of the old continent." Signed on June 29 in Bad Ragaz, Switzerland, the agreement has been strongly supported by the Northern League, the separatist party in Italy.
Regions taking part in the initiative want to come together and create a working community to develop a common strategy to guide the programming of the European Union for the years 2014-2020.
At the next meeting of delegates from the regions involved, “The levels of governance and strategies of the macro-region will be outlined, in conjunction with representatives of the national states and the EU", Il Fatto concludes.
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