Brussels – Roma’s stadium: the project for the new stadium is becoming more and more controversial. According to MEP Dario Tamburrano (M5S/La Sinistra), who is calling for investigations and taking the matter to the EU level, a level never seen before. An issue that was previously entirely domestic has now gone beyond the remit of the City of Rome, the Lazio Region and the national government, and has become a matter for the EU institutions.
The announcement from Brussels marks a dramatic turn of events in a saga that seemed to have been resolved, given the green light finally granted after 15 years of wrangling between Associazione Sportiva Roma and the authorities over a case that had been left on the desks of four mayors (Gianni Alemanno, Ignazio Marino, Virginia Raggi, and Roberto Gualtieri, currently in office) and a prefectural commissioner (Francesco Paolo Tronca).
Roma’s stadium: a never-ending story
Associazione Sportiva Roma began working on an alternative venue to the Olympic Stadium (owned by CONI) in 2011, when the new US-based ownership group led by Thomas Di Benedetto made it a priority. It was believed then, as it is now, that a club-owned stadium was – and remains – a necessary prerequisite for a more competitive team. Following due consideration, in December 2012 the site at Tor di Valle was identified for the future stadium, with a design submitted in 2013. Bureaucratic delays, changes in Rome’s local government and changes in AS Roma’s ownership led to the project being abandoned.
However, the team’s management does not give up on the idea of a club-owned stadium, and new feasibility studies have led to the selection of the Pietralata area as the site for the new ground. The proposal has met with resistance from neighbourhood committees and local organisations, but this has not prevented politicians and technical departments from approving the plan. The services conference gave the go-ahead on 28 September this year, with work due to begin in March 2027—perhaps.
Breach of European regulations
“The planning permission for the stadium planned for the Pietralata area in Rome would not comply with the European directives”, claims Tamburrano. More specifically, he explains, “the most serious breaches of European law would concern the directives governing, respectively, public procurement and the Natura 2000 network, in relation to environmental protection”. The MEP is convinced that, on environmental matters, “no impact assessment has been carried out to evaluate the potential disruptive effects on the nearby protected areas of the EU’s Natura 2000 network located within the city of Rome.”
For this reason, the Five Star Movement representative has sent a letter to the Special Commissioner, the President of the Lazio Region, the Mayor of Rome, ANAC, and DIPE to “verify the correct application of EU regulations and, in the event of a breach, to request the revocation of the authorisation in accordance with the principle of due self-protection.” Otherwise, Tamburrano warns, “our country risks aggravating the infringement proceedings already pending against it, or even facing new ones.”
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
