Sustainability, Marsilio (FdI): “Tourism must not forget territories”

Brussels – Sustainable tourism, to be truly sustainable, cannot overlook the provinces. To save the automotive industry and green ambitions simultaneously, the technological neutrality approach, so dear to the Italian government (which favours biofuels), must be implemented. These are the main messages delivered by Marco Marsilio, President of the Abruzzo region, to the European Commission.

Talking to journalists on the sidelines of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) plenary session, taking place today (2 July) and tomorrow in the EU Parliament in Brussels, Melonian Marco Marsilio reiterated the gist of his speech during the debate with European Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas, who manages the Transport and Tourism portfolio.

“Tourism will be truly sustainable if it takes into consideration the need to invest in those territories that are often cut off from major infrastructure investments,” remarked the president of the Abruzzo region and head of the Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) delegation.

“If we want to tackle the depopulation of inland and mountainous areas, we must guarantee a sustainable transport and infrastructure system that also includes those territories far from the most popular tourist destinations,” he added, bringing up the example of his region. There, he says, the municipal tax was abolished “thus reducing the cost of access to the Abruzzo regional airport, guaranteeing a growth in traffic and a 40 per cent increase in travellers compared to June last year.”

To really achieve cohesion from one corner of the EU to the other, he continued, “we need to build infrastructure that reduces the distances between metropolitan centres and rural areas.” And it is also necessary, he pointed out, “to invest in effective and modern transportation that will bring people to repopulate these territories not only for tourism but also for residential purposes.”

With regard to the infamous technological neutrality, Marsilio says he expects it to “be at the heart of the revision of the CO2 emissions regulation for cars and vans,” to be presented in the coming months by the EU executive and for which, he emphasises, there is “great expectation.”

 “In order to keep a strategic sector like the automotive industry alive,” he argued, reiterating one of the Italian government’s favourite battlegrounds, “Europe must revise the overly strict deadlines imposed on the transition and allow the use of alternative and low-emission technologies such as biofuels. “Only in this way can we achieve decarbonisation goals in an economically sustainable way,” he concluded.