“After the challenge of the regional law on quarries by the national government, we ask the Sicilian Regional Assembly again to retrace its steps”. This was stated in a joint note by the Etna Lava Stone Consortium, the Sicilian quarrymen’s consortium (Consicav) and the Cna Sicilia. The Council of Ministers of 04 May last challenged the Sicilian regional law n. 6 of 02/04/2024, containing “Regulatory reorganization of materials from quarries and stone materials”, as certain provisions, exceeding the statutory competences and being in conflict with state legislation on the protection of the environment and the ecosystem, violate articles 9 and 117, second paragraph, letter. s), of the Constitution.
“We had already expressed strong doubts – they add – on the merits. The law, in fact, introduced a value for the environmental recovery of quarries so high (10 euros per square meter) as to prevent operators from obtaining the bank guarantees necessary to fulfill this obligation. Furthermore, during the parliamentary work process, we had pointed out to the legislator the duplication of this cost, since the operators already pay the Municipalities a fee which is 50% intended for environmental recovery”.
“These costs – they add – which have no equal in the rest of the country, risk bringing many businesses to their knees until the sites close, thus causing the loss of hundreds of jobs. The sector needs many other measures such as: a simplification of authorization procedures, which have now reached biblical times; a reorganization of the offices responsible for mining authorizations and supervision, currently heavily understaffed; an adaptation of the Quarry Plan, in light of very important public infrastructures to be built in the coming years in Sicily, for which the demand for quarry raw materials requires an expansion of the sector; an extraordinary plan for the environmental recovery of abandoned quarries, given that the opening of the numerous construction sites would allow the excess earth and rocks from excavation to be used to fill the no longer active quarry pits, with notable benefits for the environmental redevelopment of these sites”.
