The project of the bridge over the Strait of Messina continues to raise controversy. After the approval of the final project last August, the Court of Auditors sent six pages of observations of doubts and requests for clarification to the Prime Minister, after the EU Commission, in recent days, has also asked the Ministry of the Environment of the clarifications on the environmental impact of the project.
At the center of the perplexity there are two fundamental nodes: the derogations from the environmental constraints and the considerable increase in costs, not only for the main work but also for roads and related railways. The Court’s opinion is far from formal: without its approval, the project cannot end in the Official Gazette nor, consequently, to start with the construction sites.
The environmental node: derogations and appeals in Europe
The Court asks for explanations on the compatibility of the project with the negative opinion of the environmental impact assessment (Vinca), which had set 62 prescriptions. To overcome that obstacle, the government had approved an Iropi report last April, declaring the “Military Interest Infrastructure” bridge. However, a move that had already made environmental associations and committees arise, so much so that some to turn to the European Commission. Now the court wants to know where this dialogue with Brussels is.
The accounting magistrates have also reported inflated or not very transparent expenditure items. The costs for safety, for example, would have jumped from 97 to 206 million euros. It also increases for the so -called compensatory works, without adequate explanations. And there is no other critical point: the exclusion of the transport regulation authority, which usually has a key role on large public infrastructures.
The Prime Minister now has 20 days to provide all the requested clarifications. From the Ministry of Transport Traps tranquility: “It is a normal institutional comparison”, they have made it known, ensuring that the bridge is not under discussion and that the offices are already at work.
