the Antitrust invites to a flood and realizes application of the communitarian principles on the liberalization of the marine cabotage



In number 29 of the 2017 of the bulletin weekly magazine of the Guarantor Authority of the Competition and Market (AGCM), that it is published today, a signalling sent last week from the Authority to Ministry of Infrastructures and the Transports is included, Authority of Regulation of the Transports, Sardinia Region and Sicily Region in which the Antitrust invites these administrations "to operate, for how much of own competence, so as to guarantee a flood and realizes application of the communitarian principles on the liberalization of the marine cabotage", wishing in particular that the Authority of Regulation of the Transports holds account of the observations of the AGCM also in the within of own procedure for the adoption of regolatorie measures for the definition of the outlines of the notices of the contests for the allocation of the services of marine transport.

In the communication the specific ACGM among other things that "it intends to evidence that the current order of the marine connections da/per the Italian smaller islands and, in particular, that relative one to the smaller islands in Sicily and Sardinia, characterized from the creation of positions of monopoly in various connections, to beyond the single episodes based on which such positions of monopoly have been formed, could be in influenced substantial measure from not corrected application of the norm and the communitarian principles on the liberalization of the marine cabotage by the competent administrations"

In the communication the Authority Antitrust remembers periodically that the task is up "to the competent administrations to carry out a groundbreaking market survey, updating it, in order to verify if sussistono the conditions for the performance of the services by operators of market, let alone to the aim to verify the possibility to satisfy the public transport requirements without to attribute exclusive right rights. Moreover - the Antitrust still remembers - the competent administrations would have to separate to the objective of protection of the territorial continuity - in it confronts of the residents in the smaller islands, of the pendular ones and others very identified categories of users - and other objectives of policy who they intend to pursue, which for example the development of the tourist activities in the interested territories".

"The current order of the markets of the services of marine cabotage da/per the smaller islands, in particular in Sicily and Sardinia - the ACGM finds - ago instead to suppose that the competent administrations have appealed to the instrument of contracts of service in exclusive right, without preventively to explore the other possibilities contemplated from the norm, less restrictive for competition, and however without to carry out that market survey that would allow to reduce the perimeter of the services to subject to Obligation of Public Service, eventually to insert in service contracts".

"Firm remaining a requirement of protecting the right to the territorial continuity of the population resident and the other categories to identify whereby for administrative way - the Antitrust observes -, instead, the administrations estimated the possibility to adopt less restrictive modalities of the exclusive right in order to satisfy the requirements of public transport and carried out the previewed market survey, could emerge meaningful spaces for the offer of services by more operators, even if subjected to Obligation of Public Service or in regime of competition in the market, with advantages for the user (tourist and not) and with possible positive effects also in terms of reduction of the public expense (in terms of contributions publics), as well as of greater transparency in the modalities of calculation of the compensations financial institutions, so as to facilitate the verification of the respect of the conditions previewed from the norm in matter of state aids".