<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> Civic Network of South Tyrol

Welcome to South Tyrol

State Administration

Several powers (particularly regarding the tax system, the military, the police, justice and transport) have remained with the State after the coming into effect of the second Autonomy Statute, and these are used by outlying bodies and departments of the various Ministries in Rome. The most important bodies are the military units, the management of the revenue, customs and tax offices, the judicial authorities, police headquarters, frontier police, traffic police, the frontier veterinary offices and the State Archives. The administration of the roads in South Tyrol has been transferred only recently, in July 1998, from the State to the Province. Also the local railway administration has been transferred to the Province on 08 March 2001. Other semi-state bodies, some of which have already been privatised, are the National Welfare Institute NISF-INPS, the postal administration, the electric company ENEL, the telephone company TELECOM and the broadcasting corporation RAI.

For most of these state offices and departments in South Tyrol (with the exception of careers in the administrative grade of the Ministry of the Interior, for employees of the Security Services and for the administrative employees of the Ministry of Defence) special career structures were created. Occupation of these posts are, according to Article 89 of the second Autonomy Statute, reserved to citizens of each of the three language groups resident in South Tyrol in proportion to the respective strengths of these groups according to the Declarations as to membership of a language group given at the time of the official census. Employees in these local career structures are in principle guaranteed continuity of their service in South Tyrol. For occupation of these posts passing the bilinguism examination is a prerequisite. These local career structures are administered from a special office under the Government Commissioner. The competition for these posts is made by a Co-ordination Committee composted of the Government Commissioner and three Members nominated by the South Tyrolese Assembly.

The supreme representative of the Rome Government in South Tyrol is the Government Commissioner (at present dr. Giustino Di Santo). According to Article 87 of the Autonomy Statute it is incumbent upon him:

  1. To co-ordinate, in conformity with government directives, the exercise of state powers, and to supervise the activities of the respective offices, with the exception of those relating to the administration of Justice, Defence and the Railways.
  2. To supervise the exercise by the Province and other local public bodies of the powers delegated to them by the State and to communicate possible objections to the President of the Province.
  3. To perform the duties previously required of the Prefect to the extent that they have not been transferred by the present Autonomy Statute or other laws to organs of the Region, the Provinces, or other State organs.

The Government Commissioner is responsible to the Minister of the Interior for the maintenance of public order. To this end he can make use of the organs and police forces of the State and can request the use of the other armed forces within the limits of existing laws and those relating to public security. The Government Commissioner also monitors state powers transferred to the municipalities (registry offices, election services). In addition he can appoint individual Commissioners for the temporary administration of municipalities whose organs have been dissolved on grounds of public security, and for municipalities with over 20,000 inhabitants also on other grounds.

Since the constitutional reform, based on and laid down in the constitutional law n°3/2001, has come into force, the Government Commissioner and the government itself have lost their preventive control regarding the provincial draft bills, passed through the Provincial Assembly and the corresponding endorsement. The provincial laws come into force after they have passed through the Provincial Assembly and after their publication in the official bulletin of the region.

The Quaestor is the person in charge of public security at provincial level. The Quaestor directs, is responsible for and co-ordinates the forces of order within the Province. Furthermore, he is the competent authority for foreigners in the Province of Bozen (Bolzano), for passport formalities and for firearms certificates etc. In the field of public order and security, the Government Commissioner chairs the Provincial Advisory Council for public order and security and co-ordination of police units is his responsibility. Moreover in the field of civil defence it is up to the Government Commissioner to harmonise the activities of the State with the measures adopted by the Regional and Provincial administration, in relation to which a civil defence programme has been set up. On behalf of the Ministry of the Interior in Rome, the Government Commissariat has the duty of seeing that parliamentary and European elections are carried out (for Regional Assembly and municipal elections the Region is responsible). Finally, within the Government Commissioner's powers fall the conferring of citizenship, the distribution of identity cards to the municipalities Since 2001, the withdrawal of driving licences - once in the hands of the Government Commissioner - belongs to the competencies of the province.