A €90 million financing agreement was signed today in Livorno by European Investment Bank (EIB) Vice-President Gelsomina Vigliotti and President of North Tyrrhenian Port Network Authority Luciano Guerrieri, in the presence of the President of Tuscany Regional Administration Eugenio Giani, the Mayor of Livorno Luca Salvetti, and Livorno Harbour Master Gaetano Angora. The goal is to support the modernization and expansion of the Port of Livorno, helping to increase its productivity, safety, and environmental sustainability.
The funds made available by the EIB to expand the Port of Livorno, which is part of the TEN-T network’s Scandinavian-Mediterranean corridor, will go towards the construction of the Darsena Europa mega terminal facility, a strategic project to accommodate vessels operating on international trade routes, to ensure the competitiveness of the Port of Livorno and safety of shipping there. To be precise, the main work consists of building new breakwaters and carrying out related dredging operations, individuating a containment area for the dredged sediments, and creating a new access channel to the port’s terminals.
These infrastructure operations will not only help improve the efficiency and safety of the port but will also increase its resilience to potential future climate events, such as rising sea levels. They will also help improve the stability of the coastline thanks to the construction of a sand pipeline, which will be used for future replenishment of the sandy coastline located immediately north of the mouth of the Arno river’s overflow canal.
With this investment, total EIB support for Italian ports now exceeds €1.5 billion, reinforcing the EU bank’s role as the main financer of Italian port authorities, a vital sector for connectivity and national and European economic development.
“This agreement further strengthens the EIB’s commitment to supporting the expansion of Italian ports, which are key to fostering the country’s connectivity and competitiveness. The financing announced today will help make Livorno a leading state-of-the-art hub port in the Mediterranean, improving its infrastructure, increasing its operational capacity, and promoting technological innovation and environmental sustainability in the port sector,” said EIB Vice-President Gelsomina Vigliotti.
“We are very proud of today’s signature. This agreement not only demonstrates how involved the leading EU financial institution is in the development of the Tuscan port but also indicates the strategic value of the Darsena Europa project, which the government and Tuscany Regional Administration have acknowledged by giving full political and financial support to its implementation,” said the President of North Tyrrhenian Port Network Authority Luciano Guerrieri.
During the agreement-signing press conference, Mr. Guerrieri also wanted to highlight another important milestone: “A few days ago,” he announced, “the verification procedure conducted with the European Commission to ascertain whether or not the regional and state funding for building the mega infrastructure constitutes state aid was concluded successfully. The European Commission departments in charge confirmed that the public contributions do not constitute state aid and are therefore fully in line with the public mission to promote the port’s safety and competitiveness.”
In Mr. Guerrieri’s view, “this is an exceptional result that we were able to achieve thanks to the painstaking work done by our Commission Body and Tuscany Regional Administration, which I will never cease to thank for all the support they have been providing. My thanks also goes to Deputy Commissioner Roberta Macii and all the Commission staff, for the highly professional manner in which they have been performing their difficult task so far.
“The Italian government believes in this project, like Tuscany Regional Administration, one of the infrastructure’s most important backers, and the local community, but so does Europe: all the work we are going to carry out has been classified as public, as something that is part of the national and therefore European system. This demonstrates the importance of this infrastructure,” said Roberta Macii.
The president of Tuscany Regional Administration, Eugenio Giani, also spoke of today’s signing as a fundamental step after two milestones had been reached: the end of the compliance verification procedure for the Darsena Europa project; the favourable observations that, at European level, consented the competent authorities to rule that the public funding for Darsena Europa did not constitute State aid.
‘Today’s signature is the confirmation of an outstanding achievement. It represents the crowning moment following the results that have been attained in the first two weeks of July,’ Mr. Giani said. ‘We would not have achieved this objective if all the competent authorities and the stakeholders involved had not been willing to work alongside the Port Network Authority to get to where we are now.”
The Mayor of Livorno, Luca Salvetti, also highlighted the strategic importance of this funding: “€90 million are available, with a flexibility that is ideal for completing this project” he said.
Livorno Harbour Master, Gaetano Angora, expressed his satisfaction: “This is a prudent initiative,’ he said. “This loan demonstrates the attention that the Port Network Authority, Special Commissioner Luciano Guerrieri, and the competent bodies have given to this project. Darsena Europa is indispensable to enable this port to overcome the infrastructural gaps that still limit the competitiveness of Italian ports, especially if we compare them with the other Mediterranean ones.”
Translation by Giles Foster
