The commission at the Ministry of the Environment in charge of verifying the Darsena Europa project’s compliance has given its go-ahead.
This is a new step towards laying the foundation stone of the new port infrastructure following its environmental compatibility being approved on 11th March by the Ministry of the Environment in agreement with the Ministry of Culture.
The request for verification of compliance had been presented by the project’s Special Commissioner, the President of the North Tyrrhenian Port Network Authority, Luciano Guerrieri, on 19th April. MASE (the Italian Ministry of the Environment & Energy Security- Translator’s Note) initiated the procedure at the end of May, after the Ministry had acquired a voluminous technical report from the Commission Body: a 143- page document detailing point-by-point the modalities for complying with the prescriptions and indications formalized by the Ministry of Culture, Tuscany Regional Administration, Pisa & Livorno Municipalities, the Central Apennine District Authority and the Migliarino San Rossore Massaciuccoli Regional Park Authority, all included in Annex B of the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) approval issued by the MASE in March.
Painstaking work was carried out by Mr. Guerrieri and Deputy Commissioner Roberta Macii, working in total synergy with Tuscany Regional Administration.
“It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of the Darsena Europa was inextricably linked to the outcome of this procedure,’ said Luciano Guerrieri. Over the last few weeks, the project’s commissioner had expressed some concern about the procedure due to the imminent end of the term of office of the members of the MASE EIA-VAS (Strategic Environmental Assessment Commission- Translator’s Note). “We expressed our concern that the Commission members would not be able to conclude the process before their term of office came to an end. Fortunately, this was not the case. The process was successfully concluded a little less than two months the procedure began,” he added, stressing the joint effort by everyone involved to define solutions that everybody totally agreed on.
Mr. Guerrieri particularly wished to thank the Ministry of the Environment, Tuscany Regional Administration, and everyone involved, “with whom,” he remarked, “we were able to work efficiently as a team, which allowed those involved to express their judgement of compliance in a relatively short time.”
The opinions and technical contributions of the stakeholders (Tuscany Region, Livorno Municipality, Arpa Toscana, Northern Apennines District Basin Authority, Migliarino San Rossore Massaciuccoli Regional Park Authority) were all received by the MASE between the end of June and the beginning of July.
“The result we achieved demonstrates the attention the Commission Body paid to environmental sustainability,” Mr. Guerrieri added “Darsena Europa will not only be efficient and state-of-the-art, but also fully sustainable. This is a commitment we absolutely intend to keep. The new go-ahead from the EIA Commission encourages us to continue in this direction: moving forward until the first bulldozer starts operating and the foundation stone is laid.”
Roberta Macii expressed her satisfaction: “We were convinced the route we had chosen was the right one. All our commission staff, in particular our Technical Dept run by Senior Manager Enrico Pribaz, worked with a spirit of self-sacrifice and great expertise to fully comply with all the environmental requirements. Our effort was rewarded today with the EIA Commission’s approval.”
The President of the Tuscany Regional Administration, Eugenio Giani, also wished to stress the strategic importance of this result: “The verification of the documentation submitted to the EIA commission legitimizes the work that led to the project’s design. The compliance verdict means we have secured the green light for Darsena Europa.”
Translation by Giles Foster
