How to centralize decisions on the implementation of the strategic infrastructures of the Italian port network in the new Porti d'Italia Spa, the company envisaged by the bill reorganisation of the law on port governance, without undermine the competences and resources, financial and staffing, as well as the authority of the System Authorities Port? A complex question that presents a multiplicity of solutions that depend, substantially, on the degree of competences, resources and authority that are intended to be attributed to the new company by removing them from the Port Authorities. To these solutions if he adds another, the one preferred by the promoters of the text A solution that would not take resources away from the Port Authorities relieving the current port authorities of competences and authorities (and charges) that they are currently unable to exercise (and support) effectively.

The latter is the solution confirmed today by the deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Edoardo Rixi, concluding today's event dedicated to governance reform organized by the Italian Confederation of Shipowners. A solution preferred by the deputy minister, as well as for the reasons reiterated today, probably also because more suitable for the political party he represents, born as a coagulation of autonomist movements in Northern Italy and then move towards a secessionist and/or federalist strategy and land, under the secretary Matteo Salvini, who leads Rixi's ministry, to the current national-sovereignist phase.

A solution that would like to combine the original impulses with the current instincts of the League, trying to glimpse in the Adult features, the features of a child. A difficult task, indeed impossible, for those who believe that over the years the League has made A paradigm shift, indeed a real revolution betraying its initial ethno-regionalist ideals to become a national-populist conservative movement. Enterprise possible, indeed feasible, for those who believe that the League has simply enlarged the boundaries of the territory to which it would intend apply their political theories.

A solution, the one proposed by the government, and specifically by the League, which has raised doubts about its actual feasibility without taking away skills, resources and authority to anyone, whatever the opinion on the need to centralize or not centralise powers.

That there is a need for a change in the port governance also considers it Confitarma. Introducing the meeting, the president of the Italian Confederation of Shipowners, Mario Zanetti, confirmed his appreciation for the intention of set up a central control room, as envisaged by the draft government law. A control room - he specified, however - that it must remain public. For Confitarma, the question on powers to be attributed to the Ports of Italy and those to be reserved to the Port System Authority remains open, with Zanetti who stressed the importance of the new rules clarifying the role of the Port Authorities. The shipowners' confederation also claimed the need to address the issue of the representation of armaments in the port area, ensuring the presence of such a Zanetti - is not only useful, but fundamental.

Agrees on the need to reform governance also Stefano Zunarelli, of the Associated Law Firm Zunarelli, an expert in transport and navigation law, who However, it listed a number of problematic aspects of the reform, as it is currently formulated, starting from by the nature of Porti d'Italia Spa: if it will be a company in-house of the MIT and the MEF or other; what will be his mission and what its financing methods are. Also for Zunarelli the boundary between the competences of the Ports of Italy and those of the Port Authorities. Major consideration - according to Zunarelli - should also be reserved the possibility that the introduction of a new major subject which Ports of Italy can weigh down the system instead of lighten it. Finally, he focused on the theme of the relationship between the Ports of Italy and the Regulatory Authority of the Transport (ART), which is not addressed by the Bill but - has observed - with which we will have to reckon with.

The president of the Association of Italian Ports, Roberto Petri, has no doubts about the need to establish a control room, then the Ports of Italy, to which - has - specified - the decisive role of the port leader Italian. But he also agrees on the need to clarify the boundary of the new company's competences with those of the ART and those of the System Authorities Ports that are represented by Assoporti. The birth of Porti of Italy - Petri pointed out - would involve the inevitable redesign of the roles and competences of the Port Authorities.

Although it is no longer the time of the Bossian slogan "Thieving Rome", in his conclusions the deputy minister However, Rixi was keen to reassure that the intent of the proposal legislation is not to centralize, but to simplify. And to do it not through a non-economic public body such as the Port Authorities, but with a public limited company, which could also be a corporation in-house if it were not - he specified - that the Ministry of the Economy and Finance is opposed to this arrangement preferring one similar to that of the State Railways Italiane, which is a joint-stock company with entirely public and held by the MEF.

Rixi explained that Ports of Italy will be a company which will concretize the "wishes" of the Authorities of the Port System. Responding to an observation that was made to him has already been made, confirmed that this role could be be covered by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Infrastructure itself. Transport, pointing out that however, the ministry does not have the resources needed to perform that function. Resources, However - it must be noted - it will be necessary to find them also establishing the Ports of Italy. According to Rixi, one could meanwhile, starting from a figure of 80 million euros recovered from the current balance of all Port System Authorities which in 2025 was 285.5 million euros. Resources from the current balance that - as it has already been pointed out by several parties - would however be subtracted, if not to cover the operating costs of the port authorities and measures to support port work, as well as less to the financing of public works plans for ports programmed by the Port Authorities, bodies which, however, according to the defenders of the Bill - could also be relieved of equivalent burdens.

The deputy minister does not see any problems on the front either of the staff of the Ports of Italy, with a transfer of personnel from the Port Authorities to the new company which, according to Rixi, would not be only possible, but also desirable in the context of a rejuvenation of the "dated" staff of the institutions port workers.

Rixi underlined, in particular, that with the new Ports d'Italia Spa would give certainty and visibility to the planning and implementation of strategic works, allowing also to stimulate private investment that is known to be require you to know the planning and timing of construction of infrastructures. This - he specified - along the lines of what happens for Ferrovie dello Stato/Rete Ferroviaria Italiana and Anas, which enter into contracts with the State multi-year programmes, which ensure flows of resources and a certain managerial autonomy in planning and implementation of infrastructural interventions, and contrary to what is currently happening for the System Authorities Dockers who manage their own revenues (concession fees, taxes ports) without a single national fund comparable to that of RFI/Anas to finance the large strategic infrastructural interventions.

B.B.