Gruber–De Gasperi Agreement
The Gruber - De Gasperi Agreement (also called Paris Agreement ) was signed on September 5, 1946 in Paris, between Austria and Italy. The contract guarantees the protection of the cultural identity of the autochthonous German-speaking population in the region of Trentino -Alto Adige. The agreement was signed by the Austrian Foreign Minister Karl Gruber and Italian Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi at the Paris Peace Conference in 1946.
Prehistory
With the end of the First World War and the collapse of Austria -Hungary and the former Austrian crown land of Tyrol was divided, with the southern parts of Trento (Trentino ) and Alto Adige were annexed to the Kingdom of Italy in the Treaty of Saint Germain. With the seizure of power by the fascists under Benito Mussolini in 1922, a systematic cultural and economic marginalization of the non- Italian-speaking majority population has been driven in South Tyrol. They eventually led in 1939 to a resettlement agreement (option ) between the regimes of Mussolini and the German Reich under Adolf Hitler. (see history of South Tyrol, Italianisation ).
( Had been occupied in the course of 1943-45 South Tyrol as operational zone foothills of the Alps from the German Empire ) With reorganization of the European nation-states after the end of World War II sought a large part of the German-speaking population of South Tyrol to a reincorporation of the province to the Republic of Austria. The effort was vetoed by the victorious powers, Britain, France and the USSR, but urged the guarantee of protection provisions in favor of German-speaking population of South Tyrol in Italy.
Negotiations and implementation of the Agreement
During the negotiations, the Austrian Foreign Minister Karl Gruber initially aimed at annexation of South Tyrol to Austria. However, the Italian Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi did not advance from the territorial claim of Italy from the field, but presented an autonomy for the region Trentino -Alto Adige in view. Gruber agreed to the proposal of De Gasperi one despite reservations, which specifically Britain had pushed for an agreement.
The most controversial case was the territorial delimitation of the Agreement which are not clearly limited the autonomy claim to the territory of the Province of Bolzano, but enabled the constitution of the extended region of Trentino -Alto Adige. The inclusion of Trentino was knowingly created by the Italian central government in the region a Italian-speaking majority population (about 200,000 German -speaking South Tyrol and 500,000 Italian-speaking inhabitants), to limit the policy space of German parties on the ground.
Italy looked at the Gruber - De Gasperi Agreement with the constitutional Konstitutierung the Trentino-Alto Adige region in 1948 than fulfilled. However, the political representatives of German and Ladin-speaking South Tyrolean felt this solution as inadequate. In the following decades, there was intense political negotiations among Austria's renewed involvement, which eventually led to the adoption of the much wider Second Autonomy Statute in 1972. This statute extended autonomy provisions of the Trentino- Alto Adige were ultimately largely on the two autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano.
Legal Significance
The juridical meaning of the Gruber - De Gasperi Agreement of 1946 is that concrete measures to protect the German-speaking population of South Tyrol were securitized at international level ( especially in terms of education in the mother tongue ) with him for the first time. With the adoption of the Second autonomous status, the autonomous administrative and legislative powers have been expanded considerably, however. The Ladin language group found in the Gruber - De Gasperi Agreement, for example, no consideration.
By signing the Agreement, Austria has been recognized by Italy as indirectly as a contractor in the area of South Tyrol question. From this circumstance, and from the many years practiced bilateral negotiations on the Second Statute of Autonomy, initiated in the political discourse of a " protecting power function" of Austria, the German - and Ladin-speaking population of the region from which, however, was explicitly mentioned in any document. Action on the part of the FPÖ, this protective power function 2012 expressly stipulate in the Austrian Federal Constitution, were unsuccessful.