Time.news – “The so-called Messina Bridge is part of the Ten-T, it is included, it is an essential connection. Apart from the inclusion that already existed, and I know that this is a very important project for the Italian Government, that of which we discussed more” with the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini, “are the next steps. And we have shown ourselves ready, waiting for a good and solid project to finance the first feasibility phase so that the project can then take off Because apart from the intention or a line on the map, we have to have a blueprint and then start the preparation phase in time for the actual construction phase.”
These are the very clear words of the European Commissioner for Transport, Adina Valean, at the end of the Transport Council, the first in which Salvini participated. But before the Council, the Italian vice premier had had a long bilateral meeting with the commissioner, at dinner with the deputy permanent representative to the EU, ambassador Stefano Verrecchia, in which he had managed to elicit the required reassurances.
I’ll update you from Brussels. https://t.co/VgiezTQnJB
— Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) December 5, 2022
A passage defined as historic by Salvini who returned to Rome exultant. The head of the League is not currently able to provide a timetable on when the final project requested will be ready but the hope is to open the construction site within two years. “I take on the honor and the burden of making a choice then there are engineers who work, have worked and will work on the project. I believe it is essential to unite Sicily with the rest of Italy and Italy with the rest of Europe, it creates real work. it is also recognized as a fundamental structure by the European side”, he explained to journalists on the sidelines of the Council.
“Combining Palermo with Berlin and Amsterdam is something significant. I hope there aren’t professionals of the no, perennial activity, to block this and other works. And I repeat: the goal is, if everything goes as I hope and as Italy hopes to start the works within two years”, he added.
To those who criticize him for carrying out an “unpopular” work among his constituencies in the North, he replies: “I do what Italy needs. Not what is popular“. “It is an infrastructure that does not unite Sicily with Calabria but Italy with Northern Europe. The Bridge over the Strait of Messina, a stable connection between Sicily and the Continent, is something that is a priority for me, for the Government, for millions of Italians, and is of great interest to the European Commission, to many colleagues from other countries who see it as a completion of a fundamental European corridor such as the one that joins the Mediterranean to Scandinavia”, he insists.
Strait of Messina
In short, the first as transport minister for Salvini in Brussels was good, but there will be elements of friction with the European executive. From the deadline for stopping petrol and diesel cars to the Austrian decisions to block the circulation of goods at the Brenner Pass.
“We talked about reviewing the ways and timing of the implementation of some policies, I am thinking of pseudo-environmental fundamentalism which risks not serving the environment but leaving tens of thousands of workers in the street. I spoke about it with the commissioner, with my French colleague and with my German colleague: outlawing petrol and diesel cars from 2035 while at the same time asking to switch to Euro 7 from 2025 is something that makes no economic, environmental and social”, underlined the deputy prime minister.
And again: in his bilateral meeting with his German counterpart, Volker Wissing, he spoke of the “inexplicable limitations and blocks imposed by Austria”, remarking that “Italian companies and carriers cannot be harmed any more”. He was unable to speak directly with the Austrian minister “because he did not participate in the work of the Council”.
Salvini, on the other hand, also had a bilateral meeting with the French minister, Clement Beaune, in which he highlighted that “the relationship between Italy and France is strategic” and announced that “we will be pleased to work together on some particularly relevant dossiers such as Tav and production of traditional engines”.
“Italy and France have agreed to ask the EU Commission for an important financial contribution for the Tav”, said Salvini, underlining that the meeting was held in “a cordial and collaborative atmosphere”. But “there was no mention of migrants”.