Mountain municipalities try to scale the Recovery Fund
What the Council of Architects and Uncem did to make mountain municipalities backbone of the Recovery Fund and the Green New Deal
Italian architects as entrepreneurs of the rebirth of mountain municipalities. Billions of euros to invest in renewable energy, urban redevelopment and new services available are the main feature of an agreement just signed between the Council of Architects and Uncem , the Association of Mountain Municipalities. In a territorial basin that is more than 50% of the national one, there are over 10 million people. They no longer intend to be left behind.
If Italy plays to the end – and we hope well – the game of European funds, the mountain communities do not want to stay out of projects, ideas, reorganization in an even more sustainable way of their lives. It is estimated that only the building adaptation works are worth 2 billion euros. And with them infrastructures, non-polluting sources, sustainable activities. It is also an opportunity to take back the laws protecting their historical and cultural heritage.
Those who signed the agreement say that it is necessary, as well as urgent, to immediately define a national plan to facilitate investments to rehabilitate the villages scattered over the Alps and the Apennines. Politics should therefore be of help to an audience of 5,552 municipalities, where there is an empty house for every two occupied. Only 15% of those available – explain architects and community representatives – would host 300 thousand inhabitants, as much as a district of a metropolis.
The Covid epidemic has made itself felt in these locations, where people have endured the discomforts of being away from large urban centers and healthcare facilities. But then all in all the villages are perceived as a driving force for recovery, considering the new ways of life and work imposed by the Covid-19 emergency. The reason is explained by Walter Baricchi, of the National Council of Architects: "the balance between cities and internal areas must be completely revised in the light of the new ways of life, work, free time that post Covid is imposing on us". Changes necessary as an opportunity for development and political intuition.
The real money of Europe still does not exist, but in this way we "implement another piece of the 2017 law on small municipalities" explains Marco Bussone, President of Uncem, commenting on the agreement with the architects. The aims of the agreement are also political in order to make mountain municipalities, as we said, backbones of the Recovery Fund , of the Green New Deal, within the framework of an integral ecology. Regenerating places until yesterday considered, by too many parts of the economy and politics, on the margins, becomes a path that attracts new inhabitants leaving the metropolis, on which mayors and administrators play a game not only economic.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/i-comuni-di-montagna-provano-a-scalare-il-recovery-fund/ on Tue, 08 Sep 2020 04:23:43 +0000.