Concessions under scrutiny at Trieste

Trieste - The European Commission has requested clarification to be given by the Italian government regarding concessions granted at ports, airports and highways but the issue looks suspiciously ‘yellow’. One of the letters from the Internal Market and Services Directorate General (DG MARKT) was sent on October 15 and it concerns some recent concessions that were granted by the Port Authority of Trieste to terminal operators and which made a lot of noses turn in Italy because of their durations: 60 years for the Trieste Marine Terminal, which handles containers; 50 Years for the Siot oil terminal; 60 years for the future ferry terminal that was granted to Teseco.

But the irregularity that Brussels wants to investigate concerns another aspect, namely whether prior to the renewal of those licenses, the Authority held a public tender. And who set the Commission in motion? It has been speculated that maybe it was an appeal made by the port of Marseille, burned by the competition of Siot, in the neighbouring ports of Koper and Rjieka, or even by Maersk which appears to have its sights on Trieste after the Monfalcone platform fallout. Another rumour - believed to be the most reliable according to sources familiar with the matter - leads to an informal alert generated within the DG by Andrea Camanzi, chairman of the Authority of Transport and historically loyal to former Democratic Party leader Bersani.

His goal: to disturb the Renzi wing of the Democratic Party currently in power. Fanta-politics? Maybe, but if the objective was really to find out if for example the TMT concession was granted via a public tender, a phone call would have been enough - because the Authority did indeed comply with all necessary formalities, even if it was the bare minimum: the tender notice was posted for 20 days in April on the bulletin board of the City of Trieste – and the phone call would perhaps have been more efficient and less noisy than a nasty letter.