Valean: “We don’t know the final decision on the Messina Bridge,” so the EU Commission won’t comment on economic aid

Brussels – A priority for Italy, an unknown for the European Commission: the bridge over the Strait of Messina is something that, seen from Brussels, is not moving. Adina Valean, the outgoing Commissioner for Transport, gives the EU viewpoint in a detailed explanation of where things stand. Summing up, nothing is moving. “The Commission is not aware of a final decision for the bridge yet, hence the maps of the revised TEN-T Regulation show the project as ‘study/idea’.”

The EU is waiting for Italy to revise the major transportation networks (Ten-T) agenda, which is currently outdated. More importantly, feasibility studies are awaited. The Commission has indicated it was willing to lend a hand, paying for up to 50 percent of the total eligible study costs. The studies, however, are not finished, so it is difficult to make assumptions. “Without the results of the preparatory studies, no assumptions can be made on a potential EU contribution to the construction activities of the planned bridge,” Valean cuts it short.  However, she adds, to date, “only the railway part of the Messina bridge would be eligible for EU co-financing.”

So much work, so little clarity. Time is needed, and the Meloni government must make up for it because it is from Rome that the input that the EU institutions need must come, with the understanding that there is no European money. Cohesion funds are not designed for the work relaunched by the current Italian executive. As for using the European Rural Development Fund (ERDF), “Neither the Sicily nor the Calabria ERDF regional program foresees investments in large infrastructures such as the bridge,” the outgoing Commissioner said. In short, little money and no real decisions. The bridge over the Strait can wait.