CIVITAVECCHIA – «Today’s Council definitively adopted the long-awaited Ten-t regulation which redefines the map of the major European transport networks». The Ministry of Infrastructure underlined this yesterday, recalling how, “the long and complex negotiation, conducted by the MIT, led by Minister Matteo Salvini, consolidates Italy’s role as a Euro-Mediterranean logistics hub”.
In fact, there are 5 European transport corridors that affect the peninsula: the Scandinavian-Mediterranean, which crosses Europe from north to south; the Mediterranean Corridor, which cuts the continent horizontally and reaches Ukraine; the North Sea-Rhine-Mediterranean Corridor, which connects Genoa to the ports of northern Europe; the Baltic Sea-Adriatic Sea Corridor, enriched, on the Italian side, by the extension of the Adriatic Ridge up to Bari; and the new Western Balkan Corridor, to which Italy is connected from the north, thanks to the inclusion of the Trieste-Ljubljana section and from the south, with the new Bari-Durres-Skopje-Sofia section.
«From the Italian perspective, fundamental results have been obtained for the strategic role of the country starting from the renewed configuration of the national network – they added from the Ministry – among the main important innovations, there is the inclusion of the port of Civitavecchia as the port of Rome in the Central network (expected since 2013) and the new route of the Bridge over the Strait of Messina. The result for Italy on the railway front was also particularly positive. Two freight routes were then defined along the coastal ridges and a passenger route on the central axis and the access routes to the Brenner crossing and the Turin-Lyon line were realigned, as well as the Venice-Trieste line reconfigured as an adaptation of the existing one, all forming part of the Central network and the routes of the corresponding Corridors”.
Many sections have been elevated to the status of the “extended” Central network, becoming part of the Corridor routes; the “Novara – Seregno” railway section has entered the Central network and the corresponding Corridor as a bypass of the Milan node and, south, the “Battipaglia-Praia” high-speed railway section.
The ministry explains that «in addition, the inclusion of numerous railway sections in the Global network was achieved: for example the closure of the railway ring in the south of Sicily which connects the nodes of Caltanissetta, Agrigento, Licata, Gela, Pozzallo and Syracuse, the sections “Aosta-Chivasso”, “Brindisi-Taranto” and the three cross-border sections “Fossano-Cuneo-French border-Ventimiglia”, “Fortezza-Austrian border (Val Pusteria line)” and “Gorizia-Slovenian border” ; the missing part of the road and railway section of the Jonica line was also included in the Global rank network in Calabria and the last road mile at the urban hub of Campobasso”. The nodes have also been expanded with the inclusion of a further 7 new ports in the Global network: Capri, Ischia, Ponza, Porto Empedocle, Porto Santo Stefano and Procida and Villa San Giovanni alongside Reggio Calabria. Among the freight terminals, 4 stand out in the Central network: Fernetti, Santo Stefano di Magra, Agognate alongside Novara and Segrate in Milan and 12 in the Global network (Busto Arsizio-Sacconago together with Gallarate, Bergamo Cortenuova, Cremona PLB and Piadena, Faenza , Foggia Incoronata, Forlì Cesena Villa Selva, Marzaglia, Ortona, Castelguelfo together with already existing Parma, Pordenone and Portogruaro). The Global Italian network then sees the inclusion of 3 new airports (Isola D’Elba, Perugia and Rimini replacing Forlì) and the exclusion of Brescia. Finally, the network of urban nodes has increased to 50 units compared to the 9 nodes currently present.
The infrastructures belonging to the Ten-t network, in addition to enjoying wide visibility and being recognized as having high European added value, are eligible for European funding, as they are obliged to comply with ambitious and challenging infrastructure requirements, both from a technical and financial. The text approved by the Council will enter into force on the twentieth day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
