The protests against the Strait Bridge continue, and extend to the legal field. On Thursday 13 June, a group of 104 people including activists, inhabitants and “lovers of the Strait” filed an appeal at the Court of Rome against the Stretto di Messina SPA company. There class actionwe read in a press release from the group, intends to move against the so-called “bridge decree”, which is being judged by lawyers «constitutionally illegitimate and contrary to European legislation». The intention of the appellants is to advance “collective interests in the environment, health and sustainable development in the area of the Strait of Messina”. Specifically, explains the press note, the appeal aims to «obtain the immediate termination by the Stretto di Messina company, of any act or behavior prejudicial to collective rights and interests”, as well as “order the immediate cessation of all negotiating activitiesof the stipulation of additional, unilateral and contractual deeds, onerous or not, linked in any way to the construction of the work.
The appeal against the Strait of Messina Company, despite being filed last Thursday, was made public only yesterday. The appellants – whose list of names is available in the first pages of the document – are people coming from different realities and some of them have been subject to expropriations by the authorities. As the lawyer Aurora Notarianni, one of the four lawyers representing the appellants, briefly explained to us, the action aims to be only «inhibitory», and does not intend to request payment of damages or refunds. Specifically, the document, 42 pages long, highlights the critical issues of the bridge decree with regards to community law “both in matters of competition and environmental protection”. In addition to this, the lawyers also bring forward questions of constitutional legitimacy, so much so that, the lawyer herself tells us, if the appeal is not accepted, the intention is to bring it before the Constitutional Court itself.
Specifically, the appeal challenges Law no. 197/2022 (which would be the budget law for 2023), and Legislative Decree no. 35/2023 converted with amendments into Law 58/2023, i.e. the one which regulates “Urgent provisions for the creation of the stable connection between Sicily and Calabria”. According to the lawyers, the so-called bridging decree would violate articles 191 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and 37 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the two legal pillars that constitute what is colloquially defined as “constitution of the European Union”. The two articles concerned concern environmental sustainability, and would be violated by the bridge decree since it would undermine the principles of safeguarding, protecting and improving the quality of the environment. The lawyers also believe that “Legislative Decree no. 35/2023 in articles 1, 2, 3 and 4 contrasts with i principles of fair competition in the market, considered in its full dimension at European level” as well as with the TFEU (articles 101 to 109). Precisely, Article 1 “on the corporate structure and governance of the Stretto di Messina company”, Article 2 “on the concession granted which regains effectiveness”, Article 3 “on the restart of the planning and design activities of the work” and article 4 on the same restart “of the additional acts”. Both in parallel and as a consequence of the violations of the fundamental European charters, there would also be analogous ones violations of articles of the Italian Constitutionand specifically articles 2, 3, 9, 11, 32, 41, 42, 77, 81, 97 101, 104, 117, 118 and 120.
There construction of the Strait Bridge has been contested since its conception. The final project was approved in February, while the expropriation process began in April. Already in May, however, the plan to open the construction sites in 2024 was wrecked, an element which according to many would confirm the criticisms advanced by the protesters, first of all that which describes it as a substantial propaganda move and of little use for the territories concerned.
[di Dario Lucisano]
