With the reform on differentiated autonomy, which was finally approved in June by the Italian parliament, there is a risk of a devastating scenario for ports and logistics. "As far as logistics are concerned, the main problem lies in the absence of planning ; it is transformed almost everywhere industrial and agricultural areas into logistics poles," he said. without assessing some essential conditions such as target markets, the level of infrastructure, especially rail, market valuations, the needs of portuality and those of e-commerce. "

"On the port side," Merlo noted, " while underestimating the opportunities arising from the candidacy of many Puglia, Sicilians and Calabrian ports to become important logistics hubs for wind farms, the greatest danger is lies in the implementation of differentiated autonomy. Already the V title has shown that it is a heavy constraint on the development of portuality. In the face of a global market that is increasingly suffering from global phenomena and decisions, we have in fact growing the need for a national port policy, not the return to the localisms of the vario gender ".

Highlighting how it is clear to all that the 13-14 billion euros that the state collected every year from VAT and excise duties of goods transiting into ports represents an attractive loot for many Regions, Merlo stressed that it would be rather advising on a reparation of the resources, avoiding destabilizing the system : " differentiated autonomy raises questions without answers. One needs to ask ourselves : how do you reconcile the autonomy with the most times announced reform of the port law? Who will ensure the homogeneity between ports, located in different regions, in service of the same markets? Who will know to ensure consistency among the various port regulatory plans? Will we have chairmen of Port System Authorities appointed by the government and others by the Regions? It is perhaps the case of remembering how the experience of regional ports has resulted in bankruptcy by making it obligatory to transfer many regional ports (last in order to Siracusa) under the jurisdiction of the System Authorities Port ".

"The ports of today are not even distant relatives of those twenty years behind : they are already, and will become more and more, places of knowledge, technology and security, voting in the application of artificial intelligence," Merlo said. cybersecurity, the use of underwater drones in support of monitoring activities also in the context of the challenges imposed by climate change. This is why we need more government attention and the creation of new structures based on multidisciplinary address models and support. Not even to those "Assessorates of the Sea" that the Regions should set up and which nevertheless represent a positive development on the road to greater awareness of the strategic importance of this sector. But with differentiated autonomy, it could outline a devastating scenario chronicling and exasperating the already lacking capacity for intervention on these issues when it would be indispensable and urgent for the country to be able to rely on reform. that centralize the port programming. "