"The lines of communication on the Alpine passes are priorities for Italy'. This was said by the deputy minister Italian Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Edoardo Rixi, during the of his speech at the informal meeting of the Ministers of the EU transport underway in Brussels on the theme "Strengthening the resilience of European transport networks". "There's the need - Rixi explained - for a transport network reliable in any situation, from climate change to geopolitical crises. If mobility passes through increasingly flexible transport, the biggest challenge is the financial one'.

Rixi recalled that Italy "has in the pipeline investments of around €200 billion, part of which is intended to strengthen connectivity on the Alpine passes: we also invest - he specified - in the upgrading of the historic lines from Ventimiglia to Frejus, from Simplon to the routes to Austria and Slovenia because the new Base tunnels are not enough. We have restarted the project of the Bridge over the Strait that will have a decisive impact on the resilience and mobility in the Mediterranean. Other funds are to make our system more efficient logistics, and intermodality with a significant impact on the significant impact on the modal shift "from road to rail" with ambitious targets on the Greek Deal."

Stressing that "the Connecting Europe Facility is useful for building large infrastructures, especially those cross-border tunnels, I am thinking in particular of the two large tunnels of the Turin-Lyon and Brenner motorways and their access routes, Rixi remarked that it is "essential to continue to co-financing the major flagship projects, such as the Bridge Strait. In addition, he added, investments in Digitalisation and cyber security are essential to reduce the the degree of vulnerability of our infrastructures, tangible and intangible, also in view of the current geopolitical instability. Themes that we have put at the center of the G7 Transport Ministerial, which will be held in Milan between a few days."