Brenner, tender for the new A22 concession suspended

A new twist in the race to award the future 50-year concession of the A22 Modena-Brenner motorway (Autobrennero). A decree issued by the MIT (Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport) has suspended the tender procedure until 30 November 2025 and in any case no later than the ruling, the text reads, of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The decree is signed by the director general of the ministry, Sergio Moschetti, and is dated Thursday, 26 June 2025.

The MIT tender, published on 31 December 2024, had already undergone a series of extensions in recent months. The last one, decided in May, had postponed to 30 June 2025 (12 noon) the deadline for submitting expressions of interest from parties interested in the concession. And a few days ago, the shareholders' meeting of Autostrada del Brennero, the company that submitted a spontaneous proposal for project financing aimed at winning the tender for a new concession, had formalised the application, explicitly stating: 'Now the goal is to win the tender.

The race, however, is currently suspended.

It is clear that everything revolves around the right of pre-emption that the MIT notice provided for in favour of the promoter (i.e. Autostrada del Brennero). On this point, the call for tenders provides as follows: if the promoter is not awarded the contract, it may exercise its right of pre-emption within fifteen days of notification of the award and become the successful bidder if it declares that it undertakes to fulfil its contractual obligations under the same conditions as those offered by the successful bidder. Recognition of the right of pre-emption in favour of the promoter will be confirmed in the letter of invitation only after the favourable opinion of the services of the European Commission has been obtained.

Evidently, MIT intends to verify whether or not the right of pre-emption in favour of Autobrennero is compatible with European law before proceeding with the tender. On 22 May last, the European Commission's Enterprise and Industry Directorate General sent the MIT an opinion in which it expressed "serious doubts as to the compatibility of the provision, contained in the call for tenders, for a right of pre-emption in favour of the promoter, selected on the basis of a previous stage characterised by very broad administrative discretion and which does not present any procedural guarantee of transparency, any guarantee of compliance with the principles of non-discrimination and equal treatment or any real opening to effective competition from other economic operators".