{"id":360950,"date":"2024-05-14T15:16:46","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T13:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/05\/14\/restrizioni-traffico-brennero-salvini-ue\/"},"modified":"2024-05-20T15:08:49","modified_gmt":"2024-05-20T13:08:49","slug":"brenner-traffic-restrictions-lack-consistency-and-restrict-free-movement-eu-commission-stands-with-salvini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/05\/14\/brenner-traffic-restrictions-lack-consistency-and-restrict-free-movement-eu-commission-stands-with-salvini\/","title":{"rendered":"Brenner traffic restrictions ‘lack consistency’ and restrict free movement: EU Commission stands with Salvini"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Matteo Salvini gloats. The crusade of the Deputy Prime Minister\u00a0and Minister of Transport against Austrian traffic restrictions at the Brenner Pass gained decisive support. According to\u00a0the European Commission,\u00a0some of the measures implemented by Vienna restrict the free movement of goods and “lack consistency.”\u00a0<\/strong>After the reasoned opinion from Brussels, the Italian Transport Ministry\u00a0can now formalize the appeal to the EU Court of Justice with greater confidence.<\/p>\n

The European Commission’s reasoned opinion to the response that Salvini\u00a0triggered<\/a> on Feb. 15 came on the last available day. According to the Articolo 259<\/a> of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFUE), “any Member State may bring an action before the Court of Justice of the European Union if it considers that another Member State has failed to fulfill an obligation under the Treaties.” But before resorting to\u00a0the Court in Luxembourg, States must turn to the European Commission<\/strong>, which has three months to rule on the case.<\/p>\n

In the opinion adopted today, the EU executive also looks at additional bans — in addition to those already in place — on night traffic, sectoral traffic for certain goods with “rail affinity,” winter traffic on Saturdays, and rationing of heavy vehicles entering the freeway (known as “metering”), imposed by Austria at the Brenner Pass starting in the second half of 2023. Over 50 million tons of Italian goods per year\u00a0<\/strong>bound for Germany pass through there.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Matteo Salvini at the Identity and Democracy\u00a0Forum (Photo by Andreas SOLARO \/ AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After evaluating the written and oral comments of both Member States, and “while acknowledging some explanations put forward by Austria relating\u00a0to environmental considerations,” the Commission considers that the Austrian measures “lack coherence” and cannot therefore be “justified in their entirety” on the basis of achieving their intended objectives<\/strong>: environmental protection, road safety, traffic fluidity, or security of supply.<\/p>\n

\n

Vienna’s position has been clear for some time: the freedom of movement guaranteed by the Treaties does not mean that goods must be transported by road. “We have capacity on rail. You are welcome to use it,” Austrian Transport Minister Leonore Gewessler<\/strong>\u00a0declared last winter. But for Salvini, the Austrian move constituted “simply unfair Austrian competition against Italian<\/strong>, German, and continental European entrepreneurs and haulers.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0In this regard, the EU Commission pointed out that the restrictions imposed by Austria are “more likely to affect foreign companies<\/strong> than Austrian ones.” It was a victory across the board for Italy, except for its claim of “alleged lack of sincere cooperation” by Vienna. An accusation dismantled by the Commission, according to which Italy did not provide sufficient evidence. A detail that does not disturb the “great satisfaction” with which the Transport Ministry\u00a0welcomed the Brussels opinion, which “thus demonstrates the soundness of the Italian government’s position” and the decision, “on strong input from Deputy-Premier Salvini, to take the judicial route after years of interlocutions aimed at finding a negotiated solution, frustrated\u00a0by Austrian intransigence<\/strong>.””<\/p>\n

\u00a0Also claiming success is the League: “It is excellent news and the result of the work that the League’s delegation to the European Parliament has been carrying out for years in the Transport Committee, in the dialogue initiated with Commissioner Valean, in full agreement with the commitment of Transport Minister Salvini,” commented the head of the League’s delegation to the European Parliament\u00a0Marco Campomenosi\u00a0<\/strong>and League MEP\u00a0Paolo Borchia,<\/strong> both members of the Transport Committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brussels adopts reasoned opinion on the Italy-Austria dispute that the Deputy Prime Minister wants to take to the EU Court of Justice. According to the EU Commission, Austrian measures are “more likely to affect foreign companies.” Salvini exults: “Another promise kept.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":360831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[26897,27865,26898,26884,26899],"class_list":["post-360950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-austria-en","tag-brenner","tag-burnerduck","tag-commissione-ue-en","tag-salvini-en-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360950"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":362041,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360950\/revisions\/362041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}