At the Public Assembly in Confitarma, held yesterday in Rome at the Auditorium of Confindustria Technica, in his report, which we publish in the column " Forum of Shipping and Logistics " The president of the confederation confederation, Mario Mattioli, has faced several crucial issues for the future of the maritime industry both Italian and international, including the new rules for decarbonisation of shipping, the norms of the study in Italy for portuality and armament and the issue of reducing the number of young Italians who choose a career in the maritime field.

"It has been called to make an important contribution in the fight against climate change and decarbonisation," Mattioli said in a statement on the transition to the green sea transport sector. responsible only for about 2% of CO2 emissions and about 3% greenhouse gas, " the president of the Confederation of Italian Shipowners has been focusing on the measures introduced at international level by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and those adopted by the European Union which-he specified-" aims to reduce the net emissions of greenhouse gases responsible for the greenhouse effect of at least 55% compared to 1990 levels to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. " Referring to EU measures, Mattioli said " it is serious to see that next year the maritime sector will be entered into the ETS, the greenhouse gas emission trading system. It will be inevitable-he noted-the increase in the cost of shipping from and for EU ports. The most penalised sectors will be those of the intra-EU trade and our cabotage, in particular the ferry vessels, carriers of the Autostrade of the Sea and the service of territorial continuity. Without a corrective intervention, the EU risks contradicting itself by deception of a harmful modal back shift, that is, the return of trucks from ships to the road, resulting in a paradoxical increase in the number of trucks. of the emissions of pollutants. "

Always referring to the effects of inclusion in the EU ETS of maritime transport, Mattioli remarked that " at risk are also our ports. "I have denounced with concern that the vessels will scale those of other Mediterranean countries not subject to the EU rules," he said, " for such reasons Confitarma, in line with the position of the ECSA, the association of the European shipowners, always opposed to the adoption of regional, distortive solutions compared to the measures adopted at the global level. "

Suffering on the subject of portuality, with the recent relocation by the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Edoardo Rixi, of the "Spanish model" to give a new form of governance to Italian ports, " but we-have detected the president of the Confitarma-our "Puertos del Estado" already has it, only that we have not noticed or pretend that we do not notice. "With this we want to say that the current set-up does not need to know what to do, but rather to have targeted interventions to improve what has not been done as it should have been," he said. And therefore, well, for example, interventions for a revisit of the Conference of Presidents that can finally implement what is already envisaged in Article 11-ter of Law 84/94, namely a concrete coordination of the port strategy national ". " In our view, pursuing bigger projects takes us away from the target and stretches back to the times when the time is one of the most valuable resources we have. The policy of doing so must not only be the policy of making laws but the politics of doing things. "

Wishing "that the extraordinary skills and professionalism of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport will not be dispersed, and that the organic endowment should be increased so that it can continue to manage with constant and exemplary commitment." the daily and numerous critiques of our sector, " Mattioli said that at the same time, Confitarma hoped for "a clear division of competence in the head of the different administrations and the supervisory and regulatory authorities-in primis the ART with which we have always had a frank dialogue with us." constant-the creation of a clear and uniform system of rules, as well as a strengthening of the participatory process of stakeholders in strategic choices affecting the maritime-port sector. "

As for the need to facilitate the access of young people to maritime work, Confitarma proposes a " regulatory simplification of the requirements of access to the professions of the sea that represent a heavy barrier of entry for young people. These barriers are, in fact, among the main reasons why in Italy less and less young people are choosing to work on the sea, at a historic moment in which, instead, shipowners need to take up! Only by knocking them will be able to counteract the shortage of Italian maritime workers and not to disperse their heritage of skills and our seafaring tradition, which has always been recognized throughout the world. A first signal to this effect is represented by the resources allocated by art. 36 of the recent "Decree Work" that provides for support for the initial training of young people who want to work by sea. However, in order to obtain the desired results, the inter-ministerial decree that will implement this provision should allow the actual use of the allocated resources. "

" The other provision contained in the aforementioned art. In 36, Mattioli also confirmed that the unreasonable nationality of the crews, rigidly imposed in 2016 by the so-called Cociancich decree, had been the only effect of the same effect. series operational difficulties on the essential links for territorial continuity and tourism ".

The assembly was concluded by the intervention of the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini, who, speaking about the reform of the governance of Italian portuality, has envisioned a commissarization of the Port System Authorities pending the new standards. A loose outlook according to the Uiltransport and Filg Cgil trade unions. "It absolutely eludes us," said Claudio Tarlazzi, the secretary general of Uiltransport, which could be the utility of a port system authority if not to block the planning system and sector investment, right at a time like this in which it is crucial to carry out the projects initiated with the National Retake and Resilience Plan. The port reform must serve to update and improve the weak points of a system that has proven to be functioning and to be able to guarantee the Italian port world to withstand moments of crisis such as during the pandemic. In our view, the System Authorities must be supported and put in place to work, while maintaining their advertising nature, in a framework of rules that protects the port work and balanced development of companies. It is necessary to develop a vision of a country system in which the Mit will play a role of planning, address and control so that dominant positions cannot be realized that may prejudice the development of the Italian port system in its complex ".

With this reform hypothesis, according to Filt Cgil, "one risks throwing into chaos the sector of Italian portuality". "The assumptions made by Salvini and Rixi of the commissioning of the Port of the Port System and changing their legal nature-the Cgil Transport Federation-said in a particularly delicate scenario," the Transport Federation of the Cgil said. under different points of view, not least the impending opening of the renewal table of the national category labour contract and jeopardising the investments in place, especially those related to the PNRR. It is absolutely essential for us to approach the issue of reform of portuality with great attention, through targeted proposals that safeguard the current axes stemming from Law 84/94, fostering balanced development of the sector national port without creating unnecessary and damaging uncertainties. There are also still too many open problems in the sector that are heavily penalising workers and workers, starting with the absence of the implementing decrees on the exodus and on the ban on self-production until the end of the year. lack of interventions on the issue of health and safety in the port area. We renew to the Mit again-he urged the Filt Cgil-the request to listen to us through constant and non-sporadic confrontation. Otherwise we will not be able to assist with our hands because portuality cannot be reformed without real involvement of the world of work. "