The boundaries of the association correspond to the former Princely County of Tyrol, a crown land of the Habsburg monarchy (including the former Prince-bishoprics of Trent and Brixen) which for centuries shaped life in the Alpine region.

[citation needed] Divided after World War I, the region retained much of its cultural integrity by its traditionally strong attachment to the land and a profound desire for self-government on both sides of the border.

The long-standing cultural, social and economic ties, as much as the recognition of convergent interests based on its traditional role as transit country and its largely identical environmental conditions in the Eastern Alps, led to the creation of the Euroregion by the three provinces in 1998.

The Euroregion in numbers as of 31 December 2006:[2] Cross-border cooperation between the three neighbours covers today many fields, including tourism, traffic, infrastructure, social services and environmental issues in the sensitive central Alps area.

In the 1990s, the Austrian federal-state of Vorarlberg, which enjoyed close relations with the region in the past, was granted observer status in the Three Provinces' Parliament (Dreier Landtag).