Doc. 9155
3 July 2001

Freedom of movement for the inhabitants of the Lei Valley (Italy)

Written Declaration No. 327

This written declaration commits only the members who have signed it

The undersigned, members of the Parliamentary Assembly,

      Denounce the intolerable relations between the inhabitants of the Lei Valley, Valtelina, Italy, and the Swiss company Kraftwerke Hinterrein (KHR), which has a franchise on a dam and hydroelectric power station in Graubünden Canton, on the border with this Valley;

      More particularly, they denounce the tense relations that have developed between, on the one hand, the two families permanently resident in the Valley, which earn their living by milk production and by managing a mountain refuge, and, on the other hand, the said company. Owing to this tense climate, the families are now under-supplied with electricity and, worse still, the company has taken it upon itself the right to block in winter, without prior notice, the only road leading to the properties of the two families, which has had a harmful effect on their economic activities;

      In view of the fact that the Council of Europe has always advocated the enhancement of mountain agriculture, the undersigned invite the Swiss Government and Graubünden Canton to remove all obstacles to freedom of movement by the inhabitants of the Lei Valley. They consider it unacceptable for a private company to be allowed arbitrarily to close roads which, even if the company constructed them, have been declared public by Graubünden Canton.

Signed (see overleaf)

Signed : ¹

Besostri, Italy, SOC

Bockel, France, SOC

Akçali, Turkey, EDG

Briane, France, EPP/CD

Brunetti, Italy, UEL

Chapman, United Kingdom, EDG

Davis, United Kingdom, SOC

Gross, Switzerland, SOC

Hegyi, Hungary, SOC

Iwinski, Poland, SOC

Kurucsai, Hungary, EPP/CD

Lauricella, Italy, SOC

Olivo, Italy, SOC

Pinggera, Italy, EPP/CD

Provera, Italy, LDR

De Puig, Spain, SOC

Risari, Italy, EPP/CD

Robol, Italy, EPP/CD

Schicker, Austria, SOC

Squarcialupi, Italy, SOC

Vella, Malta, EPP/CD

Vermot-Mangold, Switzerland, SOC

____________________

Total = 22

¹        SOC: Socialist Group

      EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party

      EDG: European Democratic Group

      LDR : Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group

      UEL: Group of the Unified European Left

      NR: not registered in a group