News archive

The Institute for Comparative Federalism of Eurac Research has established the yearly Federal Scholar in Residence Program in order to enhance the comparative study of federalism and regionalism by providing an opportunity for exchange among scholars in the field so as to inspire and develop new project ideas. Each edition's winner is granted a research stay of up to three weeks at Eurac Research in Bolzano/Bozen and gets the opportunity to discuss and present their research on issues related to comparative federalism, regionalism and/or intergovernmental relations with international experts in the field. The deadline for application is 1 July 2017. Read more...

The indigenous Wampís nation submitted to the Peruvian parliament the documentation that sustains (or is the basis of) the traditional and millennial occupation of its territory, as well as the geographical, technical, legal, and anthropological support of the exercise of their autonomy.  The Wampís nation hopes that Peru will comply with the recognition of its territory and the Wampís peoples as a subject of law, in accordance with ILO Convention no. 169 and the United Nations Declaration on The Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Read more...​

According to a recent poll commissioned by El Pais, the majority of Catalan respondents feel that they lack real choices and are unhappy with the approaches of both Madrid and the government in Catalonia. A majority of people want a third way, a political pact that would lead to constitutional reform allowing Catalonia to remain part of Spain but with "new and guaranteed exclusive powers." This approach would convince 46% of Catalans, with just 31% saying that the only possible way forward is full independence. Read more...​

The Official Gazette of Romania published recently a citizens' legislative initiative regarding the autonomy of Szeklerland, a historical region in central Romania where the majority population is Hungarian. To be sent to the Romanian parliament for debate, the authors of the citizens' legislative initiative must collect 100 000 supporting signatures within six months from the day of publication in the Official Gazette. According to the proposal, Romanian and Hungarian would be co-official languages of the autonomous region Szeklerland. The state would grant primary powers over a range of policy areas to the autonomous region, which would establish its own managing institutions. Read more... ​​ 

EURAC researcher Alexandra Tomaselli​ discusses the indigenous right to autonomy on the blog of the Multidisciplinary Network on Indigenous Peoples. Since the late 1980s and throughout the decade of the 1990s, forms of indigenous autonomy or self-government were introduced in the Constitutions of five Latin American countries (Nicaragua, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela), two of which (Ecuador and Bolivia) have reinforced such arrangements in their recent constitutional reforms (at least, on paper). In Mexico, the 2001 constitutional reform also recognised the indigenous right to autonomy, albeit to be implemented at the state (and not federal) level. Read more…​​

​The people living in Venice and surrounding region are demanding for special autonomous status, with lawmakers of the Italian regional council of Veneto approving a law that defined the people from the region as "national minority", in similar terms as the people of neighbouring South Tyrol. The law would allow for the introduction of bilingual teaching and the knowledge of Venetian language and culture for those who want to work in public administration roles, but opponents of the law think Italy's Constitutional Court will declare it invalid. Read more...​