"Law 84/94 was a positive norm, capable thirty years ago of starting a real paradigm shift that helped to support the modernization and internationalization of the Italian economy. Today its actualization, oriented by a unitary strategic vision of the harbour system, is certainly useful, but this process must not in any way upset the cornerstones, keeping fundamental the role of the Authorities of Harbour System". It has asserted the vice president of Assologiatica, Agostino Gallozzi, intervened yesterday in audition to the IX commission Transports of the Chamber on the draft law of reorganization of the harbour law.

Precising that Assologistica shares the goal of coordinating, in a national vision of system, the activities of analysis, planning, design and realization of the harbour infrastructures, Gallozzi has found that the bill previews that such strategic function is delegated to a new legal subject to public capital, the Ports of Italy Spa. On this point, however - it has specified the vice president of Assologistica - remain widespread perplexity from the marine-portual cluster. Gallozzi highlighted that the current regulatory system already contains tools that, if properly developed and strengthened, can respond to this need for strategic address.

For Assologistica - it has continued - the reform must avoid the stratification of new decision-making bodies, which would risk creating uncertainty, extending the procedures and weighting the administration, producing a result opposite to the simplification required by the sector and the entrepreneurial world.

In his speech, the Vice-President of Assologistica submitted three further considerations to the Commission: maintain central the role of the Authorities of Harbour System; return a decision-making function to the economic representations of the marine and harbour cluster; overcome a classification of the steps founded exclusively on the European formal mapping TEN-T. In particular, according to Assologistica, the reform must return decision-making centrality to economic representations, previewing clear and continuous centers of comparison with associations and with organisms that represent operators and users of the ports. The contribution of all actors of the system must be an integral part of a programming oriented to the competitiveness of the economic system of the country. In this perspective, Assologistica believes desirable the restoration, within the AdSP, of the harbour Committees previewed from the original law 84/94, archiving the inefficacy experience of the Partnership Organizations.

Moreover, the association does not share a classification of the Italian ports based solely on their formal position within the European TEN-T network, with the steps that should be evaluated for their concrete impact on the real economy of the territories, measuring the enlivened volumes, the presence of qualified operators, the index of connectivity, integration and proximity with the productive districts. For Assologistica, limiting itself to the qualification of "TEN-T central port" risks creating unjust asymmetries and a distortion of the principles of correct competition between business subjects, which must be able to offer the conditions of access to the most competitive market.

Gallozzi has finally reiterated that the role of the Authorities of Harbour System must remain central and that their prerogatives must be safeguarded, as the AdSPs represent an irreplaceable point of reference for the functional management of the ports to support the local economic systems and to further support the growth of Made in Italy in the world.

Today it has been the turn of the audition in commission of the Association of the Italian Ports that, underlining how the reform of the harbour governance represents an occasion to modernize the Italian system, has specified that, however, it serves greater clarity in the competences, objective criteria for strategic investments and guarantees so that the Authorities of Harbour System not be deprived of the necessary resources to their operation.

In the memory presented to the 9th Commission of the House, Assoporti puts his hands forward specifying that with the document introduced "does not intend to express assessments on the general approach of the reform, on the choices of institutional policy that constitute the foundation neither on the objectives pursued by the legislator", but represents exclusively a technical contribution matured through the daily experience of the Authorities of Harbour System.

According to Assoporti, the reform of the rules on the ports should first aim to a clear administrative simplification, accompanied by a clear breakdown of the competences between the different institutional subjects involved. A more streamlined governance, the association supports, would allow to speed up authorization procedures, reduce decision-making times and ensure operators conditions of greater competitiveness than the main European competitors.

Among the aspects that arouse the greatest perplexities of Assoporti figure, as for most other subjects until now audits from the Commission, the planned institution of the company Porti d'Italia Spa. Assoporti believes that the company must have an entirely public participation, but draws attention above all to the financing mechanism provided by the bill. The new society would in fact be fed also through a quota of the revenues today destined to the Authorities of Harbour System, understood resources deriving from the harbour taxes, the rights of anchorage and other current proceeds. According to the Association of the Italian Ports, that it represents the Authorities of Harbour System, such withdrawal risks to compromise the economic-financial balance of the AdSPs, that they use such resources to support the ordinary operation and guarantee the daily management of the harbour ports ports. Assoporti warns that, even a apparently limited reduction could, in some cases, adversely affect the budgets and compromise the operational capacity of the harbour institutions.

Moreover, Assoporti proposes to circumscribe the skills of the new society, excluding from its exclusive functions the interventions of extraordinary maintenance ordinaryly managed from the Authorities of Harbour System. The motivation is twofold: on the one hand these works require a direct knowledge of the needs of the individual territories; on the other hand the realized infrastructures would still remain acquired to the maritime demanio administered by the same AdSP, making little efficient centralized management.

Further clarifications are required by Assoporti regarding the possibility that the new company can take part in the realization of works already started. For the association, in the absence of a specific discipline, problems relating to the change of the contracting station, the management of the loans already granted and the contractual relationships in existence could arise.

In his memory, Assoporti devotes particular attention to the subject of staff. The bill, in fact, previews the possibility to transfer up to 25% of the employees of the Authorities of Harbour System to the new Ports of Italy. According to the association, the norm has numerous elements of uncertainty: It is unclear whether the percentage should refer to the number of employees or the total cost of staff, or whether the limit should be calculated for each AdSP or the entire national system. In addition, the question of the collective agreement applicable to transferred workers remains unresolved.

The association also highlights a particularly delicate legal profile: the transfer of the staff could not take place without the consent of the workers concerned, since it would entail the cessation of the working relationship with the public institution of belonging. In the absence of such consent, the risk of a significant litigation towards the Authorities of Harbour System is prospected.

Among the other proposals, Assoporti invites to introduce objective criteria to identify the really strategic works to be inserted in the national strategic plan, the strengthening of the role of the Authorities of Harbour System in the planning of the infrastructures and the recognition of their obligatory opinion on the coherence of the interventions with the territorial programming and with the operational safety of the ports of call.

Assoporti also proposes a revision of the classification of the ports suggesting that some ports can be included in the category of international relevance not only according to the position in the European network TEN-T, but also on the basis of objective parameters such as volumes of traffic goods and passengers. Parallelly it is asked that the promotion of the Italian Network of the portualità entrusted to the new society happens in coordination with the institutional activities already carried out from the individual Authorities of Harbour System, avoiding overlaps of competences.

Numerous comments also concern the national plan of strategic infrastructure. Assoporti proposes that the selection of the works take place according to transparent and verifiable criteria, based on the national economic importance, on the integration with the European network of transport, on environmental sustainability, on the design maturity and on the cost-benefit ratio. The inclusion of extraordinary maintenance operations in the plan should also be limited to structural interventions and effective strategic importance.