Alpine Initiative (Association)

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The name Alpen-Initiative ( Romansh Iniziativa da las Alps ) refers to a Swiss association that is committed to protecting the Alpine region from transit traffic . The federal popular initiative he launched "to protect the Alpine region from transit traffic" (Alpine initiative) was accepted by the people and the cantons on February 20, 1994 (see also popular initiatives in Switzerland ) .

The association has its origins in the late 1980s: In May 1989, environmentalists from the Swiss mountain regions launched a popular initiative to protect the Alpine region from the negative effects of transit traffic. After the required 100,000 signatures had been collected, the initiative was submitted on May 11, 1990 and the bill was presented to the Swiss people on February 20, 1994 - with negative voting recommendations from the government and parliament. Federal Councilor Adolf Ogi , who is responsible for the transport department , issued an urgent warning against the proposal that, in his opinion, could not be implemented. Nevertheless, 52 percent of Swiss voters and a clear majority of the cantons approved this first referendum from the Alpine region. Since then, protection of the Alps has been part of the Swiss Federal Constitution .

Two measures are to be taken to protect the Alpine region from the negative effects of transit traffic: Shifting transit freight traffic from road to rail and avoiding expansion of the capacity of the transit routes.

The Alpine Initiative has thus created a new starting point for the Swiss relocation policy already initiated by Federal Councilor Ogi . According to the constitution, parliament and government should now have implemented the constitutional mandate given by the people. In 1999, for example, the law on relocating goods from road to rail was passed. In December 2008, the Federal Parliament passed a successor law, the so-called Freight Transport Shift Act. This stipulates, among other things, that in 2011 only 1 million trucks are allowed to cross the Swiss Alps and that in 2017/2018 (after the opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel ) it will only be 650,000. If the Federal Council and Parliament had implemented the Alpine initiative approved by the people in its original sense, this goal should have been implemented by 2004.

As the "originator" of the article on the protection of the Alps, the Alpine Initiative Association monitors its implementation. In view of the emergency, he has been calling for an Alpine transit exchange to be introduced since 2002 . As a market-based instrument for shifting freight traffic from road to rail, it conforms to the principles of the European Union. A cap-and-trade type of Alpine transit exchange limits truck journeys across the Alps by issuing transit rights. The transit rights issued can be traded on the market. As with other limited goods, demand determines price. An Alpine transit exchange is already provided for in the Freight Transport Shift Act.

The Alpine Initiative Association is a member of the Swiss Climate Alliance .

literature

• Astrid Epiney, Markus Kern: Specifications of the "Alpine Protection Article" of the Federal Constitution (Art. 84 BV) with regard to the design of the relocation target for heavy goods traffic across the Alps. Legal opinion on behalf of the Alpine Initiative Association. Freiburg i. Ü. 2015.
• Markus Höschen: National stubbornness or ecological rethinking? Political conflicts over Swiss Alpine transit at the end of the 20th century. Munich 2007.

Web links

• Alpine Initiative

Individual evidence

1. ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung: Alpine initiative submitted . No. 109 , May 12, 1990.
2. ^ Sibylle Hardmeier, Wolf Linder: Analysis of the federal vote of February 20, 1994 . In: GfS Research Institute (Hrsg.): VOX Analyzes of federal ballot boxes . tape 52 . GfS, Adliswil / Bern 1994, p. 21st ff .
3. ↑ Marzio Perscia: Alpine Initiative. A missed revolution. In: Swissinfo.ch. SRG, 2004, accessed on June 29, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Aargauer Zeitung: The Alpine Initiative. The story of a failure . 20th February 2014.
5. ↑ Alpine Initiative calls for transit exchange . In: Deutsche Verkehrszeitung . March 6, 2003.
6. ↑ Astrid Epiney, Jennifer Heuck: On the shift of the transalpine road freight traffic to the rail: the "Alpine transit exchange" on the test bench of the European community law . In: Journal for Environmental Law . No. 4 , 2009, p. 187 .