Doubling of the Mont Blanc Tunnel, 'opening' of France

Once again the challenge for the Italia government is to wrest from the French a commitment on the project to double the Mont Blanc tunnel, the only one of the most important, in terms of volume of traffic, Alpine tunnels to still have a single, two-way tunnel. The context is that of the Italia-France Frontal Cooperation Committee, which is meeting for the third time in three years, in the presence of Minister Antonio Tajani and French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot.

Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Antonio Tajani, speaks of an 'openness' on the part of France. 'I appreciated,' says Tajani, 'the minister's willingness to evaluate an impact study drawn up by two universities so that a concrete assessment can be made on the work, and then we can face the discussion and see if France might be interested. I see this as an opening. Evaluating the hypothesis means not saying no on principle but let us study and evaluate and then we will make our decisions'.

The day saw an initial meeting in Courmayeur and then in the afternoon at the Bard Fortress. "The issue of the tunnel,' stressed the foreign minister and vice-premier, together with the presidents of Vda and Piedmont, Renzo Testolin and Alberto Cirio, 'is fundamental in the development of the economy not only of Valle d'Aosta and Piedmont, but I would say of the whole of north-west Italy. Doubling the tunnel, argues Tajani, 'means not more pollution but the exact opposite, reducing pollution because there will be fewer queues on either side'.

For Francesco Turcato, president of Confindustria Valle d'Aosta, 'from today's meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, we did not get the answers we were expecting on the Mont Blanc tunnel. While on the Italia side, reasoned Turcato, 'we received full acceptance of the hypothesis of doubling the current tunnel, from the French side comes a minimal openness, to the possibility of launching a feasibility study on this hypothesis, which is the one that Confindustria believes to be the only sustainable one for the economy of the entire north-west. It is not what I expected, but it is something'. We will go ahead, added the president of Valle d'Aosta's industrialists, 'the same I'm sure the government will do at the intergovernmental summit in Cannes on 26 June'.

At the centre of the dialogue therefore is the future of the Tunnel, which for the past two years has been subject to periodic closures of about three months for extraordinary maintenance activities. The Mont Blanc Tunnel, together with Terzo Valico and Alta Velocità, represents a key infrastructure for the development of the entire North West area. "We are here to give a visual sign, also on the part of the government, in favour of the construction of the second tube, to show how much attention there is on the part of this government and on my part as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister towards such an important issue. Every time we raise the issue, sometimes we take a step forward and I would like it to be placed on the agenda at the next French-Italian summit in Cannes because it is a fundamental issue for economic growth and environmental protection,' Tajani reiterated. France is Italy's third largest export destination market, with interchange growing by 6% in 2025, the Farnesina stressed in a note.