Sonderband 2. International Council on Archives. Dritte Europäische Archivkonferenz, Wien 11. bis 15. Mai 1993. Tagungsprotokolle (1996)

2. Session /Séance. Regional (trans-border) Cooperation / Coopération régionale (transfrontaliere) - Cova, Ugo: The Case of the Adriatic-Alps Zone / Le cas de la zone Alpes-Adriatique (english 145 - français 153)

2. Session/Séance: Cova, The Case of the Adriatic-Alps Zone

3. committee on culture, youth, sports and science;

4. committee on economic affairs and tourism;

5. committee on agriculture, forests, livestock resources, mountain areas;

6. committee on health and hygiene;

7. committee on security and social problems7.

Archives should be dealt with by the third committee, in the framework of which there are working groups for youth and sports, and project groups for historic centres, minorities and the archeological atlas. The Conference of the University Rectors of ALPE Adria is also active in the framework of that same committee. The activity of the third committee produces seminars, scientific meetings, exhibitions, sports events, special studies (on minorities, for example), scientific publications, theatrical and musical events. But in all this activity there is no place for archives8.

Article 3 of the 1978 Protocol, which lists the competences of the working community, is rather general9. For the sector we are interested in, it simply refers to „cultural relations“, in which everything may be included depending on the community’s political will. Some problems, that could easily be solved, have so far prevented archives from being included among the competences of the third committee and have therefore prevented them from being explicity stated among the ALPE Adria’s objects of study and research. One of such problems seems to be related to the different status of archives in the various ALPE Adria regions. The most important ones generally depend on the central authority of the region or Land. In Italy, however, all provincial archives (Archivi di Stato) depend directly on the national Ministry for Cultural and Environmental Assets. As ALPE Adria is based on the cooperation between administrative units of neighbouring regions, with a managment autonomy, problems would arise (financial problems, above all) if State institutions were involved, their status being higher than that of the regional administrations. But this obstacle could be overcome if there were the political will to do so. In ALPE Adria, for example, there is the Conference of the University Rectors - while enjoying considerable autonomy, the rectors, at least in state universities, directly depend on the national government. Even the Conference of the Presidents of the Chambers of Commerce provides an example of institutions enjoying different statuses in the different regions, but all difficulties are overcome thanks to the goodwill of the parties involved.

In the working community ARGE Alp, the problem of archives has been solved without any difficulty, and meetings between the directors of the Italian State Archives and their colleagues are held every year, with significant results in terms of scientific cooperation on the subjects dealt with as well as in terms of knowledge of people, structures, technologies. This cooperation has led to the drawing up of a directory of the ARGE Alp archives which will soon be published.

7 I b i d e m, p. 11 and 15-16; ALPE Adria. Un esemplare modello (see note 1 ), p. 8-14.

8 Extra 2 (see note 6), p. 83-83.

9 For the text of Protocol of entente, see i b i d e m, p. 19-21.

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