A constant and detailed work. The discussion continues within Assiterminal, the association that brings together Italian terminal operators, regarding the draft law for the reform of the port sector which, among other things, provides for the establishment of Porti d’Italia S.p.A.. In a long document, the Presidency Committee composed of Tomaso Cognolato, Antonio Barbara; Giancarlo Russo, Luca Trevisan, Giuliana Brucato and the Director, Alessandro Ferrari, present the results of a further and in-depth examination of the proposal formulated by the Government and presented to the competent parliamentary committee to the social partners.
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Within the position paper, in addition to the issues of work and the necessary actions to be implemented to promote greater efficiency of the national port system, the Association has included a series of reflections on the nature, role and functions of the new governance entity. Assiterminal first of all highlights “the risk of overlaps between the competences of Porti d’Italia Spa and those already attributed to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, the Port System Authorities, the Transport Regulation Authority, already a source of problems that ultimately tend to discourage private investments: it will be necessary, in fact, to pay particular attention to the possible dual role of this new entity, to respect the principle of separation between public functions and economic activities, to the substitute powers of the MIT, to the role of the Port System Authorities and to the stable involvement of economic representatives in planning.”
For this reason, the Association proposes to make the proposal to establish a national coordination of strategic investments more coherent and compatible with the operational and territorial role currently held by the Port System Authorities, whose decision-making proximity must be preserved within a framework of unified governance. “This is possible – reads a note – through a clearer definition of the governance structure and a clear distinction between planning and management, concession functions and economic activities, a limitation of substitute powers to strictly necessary cases and strengthening coordination with the National Conference of Port System Authorities, the Partnership Body and the comparatively most representative employer associations.”
“It would also be useful to intervene – adds Assiterminal – to ensure a clearer distinction between the functions of guidance and strategic planning and those of operational management, respecting the principle of separation between the exercise of public functions and the conduct of economic activities. In this perspective, it is considered necessary to more clearly and precisely circumscribe the operational role of Porti d’Italia S.p.a. Probably a reflection can also be made regarding the regulation of the substitute powers of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, providing for their use limited to cases of actual and proven necessity, respecting the principle of loyal cooperation between the different levels of government of the port system.”
To this end, rather than restoring the old structures of the Port Authorities’ bodies, Assiterminal hypothesizes strengthening the stable involvement of coordination bodies and the most representative economic representatives, through a more effective connection with the National Conference of Port System Authorities, with the Partnership Body of the sea resource and with the comparatively most representative employer associations, in order to ensure that the programming of strategic investments is based on a structured dialogue with sector operators and responds to the actual needs of the national port system.
According to Assiterminal, then, “the concession framework is already complex: aggravated by overlapping competences and regulatory uncertainty, the latter causing non-uniform treatment for private concessionaires which affects the stability of concession relationships, the maintenance of the economic-financial balance for concessionaires, the recognition of unamortized investments, and the risk of increased charges on users and the need to avoid additional regional impositions on port state property fees.”
“We have reiterated on several occasions – add the Presidency Committee and the Director of the terminal operators’ association – the importance of a revision and simplification of the concession framework to ensure stability and transparency. Moreover, the increase in complexity, also in the disparity of costs, risks altering competition among different terminal operators. For this reason, “given such a complex framework, the hypothesis of a dual multi-subject case relating to the hypothetical joint assignment between the Port System Authority and Porti d’Italia S.p.A. of port concessions seems somewhat forced. It would therefore be necessary to maintain the assignment of port concessions to the Port System Authorities even in cases of financing of the work by the requesting private party, since a change in this competence would require cascading changes also to all secondary legislation (including DIM 202/2022, DM 110/2023 and local state property regulations). It is even more important to strengthen the certainty of the concession framework and the uniformity of its discipline, providing for economic-financial rebalancing tools, enhancement of investments made by concessionaires and clear rules on the value of subrogation. We will therefore propose, among other things, to exclude the possibility of collecting additional regional or territorial levies on concession fees, in order to preserve national uniformity, competitive equality between ports and investment sustainability.”
As already reiterated, Assiterminal also considers it necessary to intervene on article 5 sexies by providing that port concessions are entrusted exclusively by the AdSP, including, at most, a mandatory opinion of the MIT in the case of works included in the Plan referred to in art. 4 ter.
“Finally, but no less important – concludes the document – paragraph 8 of art 29: provides a mechanism for verifying the conformity of port concessions already granted to the MIT-MEF Interministerial Decree of December 28, 2022, no. 202, with the possibility of imposing the modification of contractual clauses by means of an additional act and, in cases of non-compliance, ordering the revocation of the concession: “this provision must be repealed.”
