The President of the Regional Parliament
of Trentino-South Tyrol
Franz Pahl
addresses Catalan European Journalists in Barcelona

Catalan Journalists of the “Asociación periodistas europeos” de Cataluña met on March 7^th  2008 at the Press House in Barcelona with the President of the Regional Parliament of Trentino-South Tyrol Franz Pahl.

The meeting was introduced by the President of the Catalan Association Teresa Carreras and our international President Paolo Magagnotti was present too.

President Pahl addressed the audience on the topic “Regionalism, Cross-boarder Co-operation and Ethnic Issues”, paying  special attention to the South Tyrolean experience.

After recalling the most important  passages that marked the history of the South Tyrolean population, from the division of Tyrol after WWI, to the fascist oppression and the fights for autonomy till the recognition of a special statute meeting important needs and requirements for the protection of the German-speaking people in the Province of Bolzano/Bozen, Pahl underlined the necessity of guaranteeing concrete protection to all the ethnic and linguistic minorities in Europe as a condition for peaceful  coexistence in a European Union that wants to reach and keep its unity based on diversity.

“We want to live in a Europe that flourishes on its variety”, Pahl sad.