(Finance) – The European Commission believes that Alone the part of the rail transit of the Messina Strait Bridge would be co-financeable by the EU as a strategic project, within the framework of the TEN-T regulation of the European Union. This is what was specified by the European Commissioner for Transport, Adina Valeanplacing limits on investment in infrastructure.
“Within the framework of the Connecting Europe Facility – he explained – the Commission can co-finance studies aimed at preparing the construction of TEN-T infrastructure projects with 50% of the total eligible costs. Only the railway part of the Messina bridge would be eligible for EU co-financing”.
Within the framework of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) – Valean continued – the regulatory requirements of thematic concentrationfocused on strategic objectives 1 “Smarter Europe” and 2 “Greener Europe”limit the allocation for large mobility infrastructures. These are eligible only under strategic objective 3 “More connected Europe”. Furthermore, the partnership agreement with Italy identifies as Investments in sustainable mobility are a priority in railway infrastructure and limits investments in road infrastructure to the selective redevelopment of secondary roads connecting internal areas”.
The European official has however clarified that “the Commission is not still unaware of a final decision for the bridge, therefore the maps of the revised TEN-T regulation show the project is currently at the study/idea stage”.
“Member States shall ensure that projects which are likely to have a significant impact on the environment are subjected, prior to authorisation, to a environmental impact assessment“, the commissioner recalled, adding that “without knowing the outcome of the preparatory studies It is not possible to make assumptions about a potential EU contribution to the construction activities of the planned bridge, and therefore about the potential impacts on the overall budget.”