Examination of the bill for the reorganization of Law 84/1994 on port governance addressed yesterday by the Commission Chamber of Deputies recorded a substantial maintenance of the positions of the parties, with the majority pulling straight on Porti d'Italia Spa, the company wholly owned by public but of a private nature whose institution is provided for by the bill and to which they would be entrusted in concession for 99 years for the design and construction functions strategic infrastructure works and extraordinary maintenance in the ports of the network, and with the oppositions that ask to stop. In particular, by addressing the first hundred of the 614 proposed amendments presented to the measure, the amendments suppression of the opposition on Articles 1, 2 and 3 which establish the regulatory and nominal framework of Porti d'Italia Spa.

For the oppositions, Francesca Ghirra (Alliance of Greens and Left) noted the opposition of his group to the choice of to concentrate in the company Porti d'Italia Spa, by law the competences currently attributed to the Authorities of the Port System, including those relating to infrastructure and extraordinary maintenance. He believes, at the on the contrary, it is preferable - he specified - to strengthen the coordination between the same Authorities, maintaining in to them the management of the infrastructures and to the Ministry the master planning.

Valentina Ghio (Democratic Party) insisted on the risk of Concentrating broad powers on strategic decisions in a board restricted of a corporate nature, weakening the relationship with the territories and coordination with the System Authorities Port Authority. He also noted that the proposed structure is not and is unprecedented compared to the experiences of the other European countries.

Antonino Iaria (5 Star Movement) spoke of a risk concrete overlapping of competences between the new company and the Port System Authorities, with consequent uncertainty on who should actually define and implement port strategies and a possible marginalisation of national bodies, territorial areas.

Speaking on behalf of the Government, the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Infrastructure and Transport, Edoardo Rixi, rejected the accusations of centralization, arguing that the reform does not affect the competences of the regions, nor does it reduce their prerogatives, on the contrary, providing for shared programming through the Unified Conference and the involvement of the different levels of government. He specified that Article 1, in defining the competences of Porti d'Italia Spa, does not change the allocation of powers in a matter of shared competence, recalling the commitments assumed at the State-Regions Conference and the related constitutional jurisprudence.

On the front of the allocation of financial charges, an issue that has been raised by several Opposition deputies worried about a possible emptying of territorial resources and a consequent increase in taxes Rixi explained that the certainty of skills is already guaranteed by the mechanism of the National Plan: the works in it is the responsibility of the Ports of Italy, the others remain of competence of the Port System Authorities. On this basis the government rejected the Bakkali amendment 4.32 which called for objective and predetermined criteria for the allocation of strategic works, ordinary and extraordinary maintenance, judging it potentially in conflict with the mechanism already envisaged.