The ruling of the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio, a separate section of Latina, was released on May 3rd, accepting the appeal of one of Gaeta’s mussel farming cooperatives, assisted by the lawyers Alfredo Zaza D’Aulisio and Jessica Quatrale, definitively canceling the Municipality’s note of Formia on 19 December 2022.
In that note, the Maritime State Property Office of the Municipality of Formia ordered the coop to remove, through eviction, the mussel farming plant and to pay the illegal occupation compensation for the sum of over 10 thousand euros, considering the concession obtained by the coop to have expired on July 30, 2009.
Both the Municipality of Formia and the Ministry of the Environment appear in court. The Lazio Region did not arrive and, in August 2019 and November 2022, through two separate decisions, ruled out that the mussel farming plants located in the sensitive area of the Gulf of Gaeta had a polluting capacity. According to the appellants, Unife, FAO and Ispra, “following in-depth studies”, also ruled out that the plants could constitute a polluting factor.
Furthermore, the appellants complained to the Municipality of Formia of the denial of the extension of their concession.
Last March 27, the TAR of Latina accepted the precautionary request of the Gaetana cooperative in view of the hearing on the merits where the appellants filed a brief, recalling the regional resolution of November 14, 2023, requested by the councilor of the Rocca council, the Pontine of Itri Elena Palazzo (Brothers of Italy).
A resolution that modified the regional resolution of 2010 – number 116 -, i.e. the one on which the note from the Municipality of Formia contested by the appellants for annulment was based. This resolution, that of 2023, provided for the suppression of “references to shellfish farming facilities, mussel farming facilities and mussel farming activities”, limiting the relocation only to fish farming facilities located in the Gulf and therefore excluding all fish farming facilities from the same area. mussel and shellfish farming.
Furthermore, the Municipality of Formia did not defend itself as it could have. In fact, the organisation’s lawyer, Sabina Agresti, announced her resignation, although she declared herself willing to continue with the legal aid of pending cases. In response to this declaration of availability, the lawyer Agresti did not receive any response from the Municipality of Formia.
In the end, the TAR ruled in favor of the appellant, both in terms of the extension of the concession and that of the sensitive area of Gaeta. As pointed out by the opposition municipal councilor of Formia, Paola Villa, the resolution desired by the regional councilor Elena Palazzo was determined.
“The TAR – explains Villa – in writing the sentence is clear: “the regional council resolution n.718 of 14 November 2023 modified the content of the DGR n. 116/2010″.
That is, the resolution of the regional councilor of Fratelli d’Italia, Elena Palazzo, has radically modified the resolution establishing the Sensitive Area of the Gulf of Gaeta, no. 116 of February 2010. In fact, Councilor Palazzo’s resolution “ordering the suppression of references to shellfish farming plants and mussel farming activities… essentially limiting the planned relocation only to fish farming plants located in the Gulf of Gaeta and therefore excluding from it all mussel farming plants” totally changes the destiny of our Gulf”.
“This sentence – continues Villa – puts a tombstone on the possibility that our Gulf will be able to see the hundreds of square meters of water occupied by rows of mussels free. Not even a month ago, councilor Palazzo, together with many other politicians, ministers, undersecretaries, entrepreneurs and trade associations, paraded at Villa Ireland talking about the “Blue Economy”, crowding the usual façade event, which “moves” the economy, but certainly not that of this gulf”.
“We ask the Municipality of Formia: will it be necessary to continue to appear as a civil party in trials such as the “retini adrift” trial of 2019? Will these farms be seriously regulated? Really knowing all the concession characteristics and making them public?”.
“In the meantime – concludes Villa – this ruling makes history and definitively establishes that the nets, buoys, polystyrene boxes and everything relating to mussel farms are and will continue to be part of the Gulf of Gaeta and of our lives”.
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