The development of the Three Provinces' Parliament (Dreier Landtag)
On March 19, 1970, members of the two parliaments of Tirol and Südtirol/Alto Adige assembled in Bozen/Bolzano for the first joint session of the two parliaments after more than 50 years. This was the result of joint initiatives of Alois Lugger, then president of the provincial parliament of Tirol, Robert von Fioreschy, then president of the provincial parliament of Südtirol/Alto Adige, Eduard Wallnöfer, then Governor of the Province Tirol, and Silvius Magnago, then Governor of the Province Südtirol/Alto Adige.
On May 14, 1971, a further meeting was held in Innsbruck, uniting the members from North Tirol, South Tirol and East Tirol in their historic meeting place, the old parliament hall in Innsbruck, for the first time after 57 years.
In 1991 the joint meetings were extended to include the members from Trentino, too. In 1991 and 1993, the two "Four Provinces' Parliament" sessions (the provincial parliaments of Tirol, Südtirol/Alto Adige and Trentino sat together with the provincial parliament of Vorarlberg) in Meran/Merano and Innsbruck, respectively, added a new common aspect to these long-established and historic relations. After the third meeting of the four parliaments, the province of Vorarlberg chose to have observer status when taking part in the joint meetings of the three parliaments.
On May 19, 1998, the three provincial parliaments met again in Meran/Merano, the former capital of Tirol. After the rules of procedure for the Three Provinces' Parliament had been agreed upon, the central topic of this meeting was the convention on cross-border cooperation within a Euroregion between the Autonomous Province of Südtirol/Alto Adige, the Autonomous Province of Trento, and the Province of Tirol. This convention represents a pilot agreement of the Three Provinces' Parliament and may be regarded as a first small step towards establishing organizational structures for the Euroregion Tirol-Südtirol/Alto Adige-Trentino.
On May 24, 2000, the provincial parliaments met in Innsbruck to discuss 26 proposed resolutions which were then agreed upon. The meeting of the Three Provinces' Parliament in Riva on May 29, 2002, was broken off without results.
On February 22, 2005, the provincial parliaments met in Meran/Merano, as decided by the presidents of the provincial parliaments of Südtirol/Alto Adige, Veronika Stirner Brantsch, of Trento Giacomo Bezzi and of Tirol Helmut Mader during the meeting held in Bolzano in March, 2004.
The development of the Three Provinces' Parliament would not have been so easy without the track-beating joint sessions of the parliaments of Tirol and Südtirol/Alto Adige. No doubt the historic reminiscences are nothing but an emotional background - not really unimportant though - for the activities of the three provincial parliaments directed towards solving day-to-day problems together.
Realized by