The Council of Administrative Justice for the Region Siciliana, ruling on the appeal filed by the Authority of Harbour System of the Strait against the shipping company Caronte & Tourist, published yesterday two judgments relating to Judgments on the legality of the two calls for tenders published from the AdSP in August of 2021 for the identification of the concessionaires of the two ferry terminals in Rada San Francesco in the port of Messina.

Commenting on the pronouncement of the CGARS, the port authority has Recalled that in the first instance of judgment the detached section of Catania of the Regional Administrative Court for Sicily had The legitimacy of the contents of the calls has already been confirmed proposed by the AdSP noting, however, the alleged lack in the Administrative procedure for the involvement of other actors than those identified. The AdSP has emphasized that the CGARS now it has ruled out that the Sea Resource Partnership Body, composed of representatives of the maritime cluster, were entitled to be involved in the proceedings in which the decision to identify two concessions, while confirming the vice of the non-involvement of the Municipality of Messina due to the effect a provision of the Technical Standards for the Implementation of the new Plan Port regulator that for those areas provides a co-planning between the port authority and the local one. 'For this is the only reason, which therefore does not concern the contents of the calls challenged by the company Caronte & Tourist - highlighted The Port Authority - remains confirmed the annulment of the acts of tender and subsequent awards arranged by the AdSP to the outcome of the tender itself that we had seen assigned a terminal to the same applicant company and the other to Comet - Company Mediazione Trasporti Srl.

The Authority of Harbour System of the Strait has pointed out that after more than a year of blocking the procedure now will be able to "renew the tender procedure, using the same calls at the time proposed with the only care of preliminarily acquire the agreement with the Municipality of Messina with reference to the abovementioned provisions of the NTA of the PRP'.

'Although it is necessary to repeat the whole procedure - has commented the president of the AdSP, Mario Mega - we are satisfied with the result of the administrative judgment that has definitively clarified the correctness of some of the most significant notices that had been challenged by the operator who It has been operating in those areas for decades. Among them: the creation of two separate terminals, assigned to two different operators, for promote competition as indicated, among other things, the Italian Antitrust Authority; the granting of concessions for port operations and the consequent obligation, previously non-existent, for dealers to apply the CCNL Ports and, in the process of taking over for new assignment, social clauses to protect employees; the absolute ban on access to the terminals heavy vehicles in departure from Messina, thus allocating the ferry departure only cars, coaches and commercial vehicles under 35 tonnes, except when operations to the Commission are halted. landings of Tremestieri ordered by the Maritime Authority and by the Port Authority as a result of silting up and thus excluding the derogations currently provided for an increase in waiting times resulting from carriers' operational choices; the obligation for carriers to communicate all data in real time on the scheduling of the races and possible delays in order to allow timely and correct information to all users»

'As regards the need to acquire the agreement with the Common - continued Mega - we take note of it but we continue to express perplexity because it is linked to a PRP forecast that we think refers to cases different since in this case the intended use of the areas and there are not even interventions significant buildings to be implemented for the separation of terminals. The the same municipality, on the other hand, does not seem to have ever claimed this role also because, vice versa, it regularly expresses opinion as part of state property procedures also relating to those areas whenever a dealer needs to carry out activities building or transformation of the territory. However, we do not have problem to adapt to the interpretation of the CGARS even if this now perhaps it will involve having to verify the need to proceed in self-defense to the annulment of all the others concessions issued on those areas in recent years to start new award procedures'.

In Mega's opinion, "the point of the most significant, however, remains that of the definitive clarification about the role that the law in force assigns to the Body of Partnership of the Sea Resource which is responsible for pronouncing itself, with Advisory opinions, "upstream" on the acts of planning and programming of the port without however having competence with regard to decisions taken "downstream". This judged - it has detected the president of the AdSP of the Strait - I hope it puts an end to the attempts proposed by some port operators, sometimes as representatives of their own category and sometimes to protect their business interests, counter management acts of the Port Authority claiming a competence that the law does not assign to them. Lastly the attempt to block the tender for the works of arrangement of the external areas of the former Messina fair for not having "could" intervene on a mere management act carried out by the Committee of management for updating the total cost of the intervention, leavened following the drafting of the executive project, Adjustments required following mandatory opinions of institutions in charge and the higher cost of materials after it was already was consulted "upstream" when updating the Three-year Plan of Public Works last October».