Well 178 integration requests of the documents presented, an enormous amount of material to be produced which suggests the presence of serious gaps in the final project, especially for the environmental part, but not only. Other than “construction sites open in the summer” for the Messina Bridge, as announced by Matteo Salvini: the proposing companies – Stretto di Messina and the Eurolink consortium (led by Webuild) – will have to integrate the documentation presented for the procedure Environmental impact assessment. As anticipated by Done, the Via Commission of the Ministry of the Environment (made up of 50 experts) sent yesterday (and published this morning on the public portal) the requests for integration of the documents to the two companies. Also considering the sub-requests, we arrive at 280 additions and clarifications, over 60 relating to the Impact Assessment on the sites of the Natura 2000 Network and on almost all the most relevant environmental components. It is worth remembering that the previous Via on the 2011 project ended in 2013 with a resounding rejection which concerned the Impact Assessment on sites protected by Europe and 18 requests which were only partially complied with.
In theory, the 30-day process available to the Via Commission to express its opinion should have started yesterday, but the counter has already stopped with the request for integration. Now Strait of Messina and Eurolink they would have 30 days to respond but they could also ask for an extension which would lead to a suspension of the times. Without considering that upon expiry, the public will be able to counter-deduce in the following 30 days. In recent days, associations and committees have presented 534 pages of very weighty comments on the project, which they say “has nothing definitive”. Heavy comments also from the Municipalities of Villa San Giovanni and Messina, as well as the metropolitan cities involved.
Requests for additions concern all aspects, from Analysis costs-benefits that underestimates the costs of the project framework and does not clarify the traffic estimates used; from the scant information provided on construction sites to the lack of information regarding impacts on air, land, surface water, noise etc. There are many requests for integration on the Impact Assessment (VincA). What is missing, for example, are credible compensation and mitigation plans for many of the areas involved.
In short, a request for heavy integration, which extends time and makes sense at the moment impossible to evaluate the final project produced by the companies involved. Considering that the Via Commission will expire on May 24th, without the possibility of being extended the ball will move to the new one, whose appointment procedure could take months. The race of Salvini and the CEO of Stretto di Messina, Pietro Ciucci, seems for now to have collided with a procedural boulder difficult to overcome in a short time.
“These requests attest to the impossibility of approving a (non) Final Project and the fact that moving on to Executive project and opening the construction sites, before the summer or by the end of the year, is simply a chimera – they explain the associations Italia Nostra, Kyoto Club, Legambiente, Lipu, MAN, WWF and the Messina citizen committees – Salvini go for more gentle advice on the bridge over the Strait of Messina. As Minister and Vice President of the Council of Ministers, defend the public interest and avoid the suffocating and inconclusive embrace with SdM SpA and Eurolink. As head of the League, you fold the electoral flag of the Bridge, waved in vain, in view of the vote for the European elections on 8-9 June. Citizens are being cynically mocked, starting with those who should be expropriated of their homes and lands.”
