Strait Bridge, Italy now negotiates with Brussels

After the rejection by the Court of Auditors, the game of the Stretch Bridge shifts to European terrain. Mit and Mef have opened a discussion with Brussels in order to verify the spaces allowed by the EU directives referred to by the Court of Auditors. On Tuesday, 10 December, a technical delegation of the two ministries and Stretto di Messina will be at the Commission's headquarters for the first operational meeting: it will start with the Habitat directive, while a later meeting will be scheduled for the competition-procurement part.

This is the first formal step after the stop to the registration of the Cipess resolution and after the meeting between Minister Salvini and EU Commissioner for Transport Apostolos Tzitzikostas. In the MIT reconstruction, the deputy prime minister 'learned with great satisfaction that the orientation of Brussels has not changed and there is total interest and determination that the work can start as soon as possible'. Salvini confirmed 'the government's commitment to go ahead by providing all the answers requested by the Court of Auditors'. The conversation thus becomes the political basis for the new perimeter of interlocution with the Commission.

In the complex picture of a new procedure to be put back on track, the number one of the concession company also intervenes. "The objective is to obtain from the Court a full registration of the CIPESS resolution. The path identified does not envisage a new tender but the reactivation of the procedures concerning the CIPESS resolution and the interministerial decree relating to the Third Additional Act to the Convention in order to comply with the Court of Auditors' motivations," reiterates Pietro Ciucci, managing director of Stretto di Messina. A line that aims to close the internal front while opening the European one.

The confrontation now focuses on the European game: it will be there that Italy will attempt to stem the rain of remarks that has fallen on the project. These are observations that are largely considered amenable to remedy, such as the exclusion of Art - the transport regulation authority - from the tariff consultation. The thorniest knots remain the environmental incompatibility with the Habitat directive and the issue of tenders, with the contestation of an overrun of more than 50% of the original costs. Added to this is the transformation of the project model from project finance to entirely public financing. It is on these points that the government will try to convince Brussels of the full compliance of the bridge with the European regulatory framework. The Commission will examine the comments in the coming weeks. It will not be a quick process, although the most optimistic still point to the summer as a possible start date for the construction sites.