Montagna, Barnier:“In the EU we must speak with one voice”

Barnier, former French minister, was awarded the Ami de la Vallée d'Aoste award

Saint-Vincent (AOSTA) – “Our mountain territories must speak with one voice, because they are sparsely populated territories. Big cities and big regions weigh and matter. When you have a different identity, but with fewer inhabitants, you have to be united“.He said it Michel Barnier, former French minister, former European commissioner and negotiator for the EU in Brexit, spoke this afternoon at the Grand hôtel Billia in Saint-Vincent at the Sommet Grand Continent.

Barnier, who began his political activity in his native Bourg-Saint-Maurice, in Savoy, was awarded the honor of Loved by the Vallee d'Aoste which had been attributed to him in 2007 and which he had never personally collected.“It makes me very happy, for many reasons, even after almost 17 years. It is an honor that honors me and encourages me, which establishes an ancient closeness and complicity" he said. Between Valle d'Aosta and Savoy, "despite the wind on the Piccolo San Bernardo hill and a bumpy road at the time, we decided to collaborate.In craftsmanship, in the mountain pastures, in the language - Barnier recalled -.At the time we had launched a joint project, that of renovating the hospice.We have seen the difficulties of renovating a property on the border, owned by a religious order. Once in Brussels, I proposed the creation of an organism to manage something that is on the border, shared between two different properties“.

Today the former EU commissioner no longer has executive functions, "but I have a lot of experience, which does not give us the right to give lessons, but advice to understand how to collaborate together“.On the topic of climate change, Barnier recalled:“We need an adaptation of our valleys, because at least half of the economy is based on winter sports:40-50 years from now, with a 2-3 degree increase in temperatures, everything will change.In this industry, prevention costs less than repair.Instead of looking for solutions each for himself, it costs less to look for them together."Barnier concluded:“I am a friend of the Aosta Valley well before being a European minister and commissioner, and I will always remain so“.