the European State Audit Court rejects the programs "Marco Polo", considered ineffective and to suppress



The European State Audit Court has launch a torpedo against the European programs "Marco Polo", than from the 2003 they have financed projects finalized to the performance of transport services you turn to transfer the transport of the goods from the road to other modalities, as the marine transport short the internal the water beam, railroads and ways. According to the Court, in fact, these programs have been revealed "ineffective" and therefore they would have to be "suppressed".

The Court has introduced today the conclusions of an own new relation second which these programs "are ineffective in so far as i) the quantified objectives fixed are achieved alone in measure much limiting, ii) i programs have had insufficient impact in transferring the traffic goods on the road towards other modalities of transport, and iii) are not given you in order to estimate the benefits attended from the reduction of the environmental impact of the transport goods, from the reduction of the congestion of the traffic and from the improvement of street safety" and therefore they would have to be suppressed in their current form. "In simple words - Ville Itälä has explained, the member of the Court in charge of the relation - the programs have been ineffective as they have not achieved the objectives that were prefixes and have had insufficient impact in transferring the traffic goods from the road towards other modalities of transport; moreover, they are not given you in order to estimate if the objectives of politics are achieved (in terms, for example, of benefits for the atmosphere)".

The State Audit Court of the EU has specified that the audit however has found that is not introduced a sufficient number of proposals of relevant projects, as the market situation and the norm of the program has discouraged the operators making use of such regime. The sustainability of a half of the controlled projects is limited. One of the main ascertainments of the audit is that there are serious indications of "nertial effect", that is the projects would be started also without the financing EU. In fact - it has specified the Court - 13 of the 16 controlled beneficiaries have confirmed that they would have started and carried out the service of transport also in absence of subsidies. Moreover, they are not given you reliable in order to estimate the benefits on the environmental impact of the transport goods, in terms of reduction of the congestion of the traffic and improvement of street safety.

According to such relation the State Audit Court has recommended to stop the financing EU to the transport services goods that follow the same approach of the Marco Polo programs. According to the Court, in future the financings would have to depend on an impact appraisal ex ante, that it show if, and in that measure, produces an added value for the EU. Moreover it would be necessary to such fine a detailed practical analysis of the potential question and better in the Member States.