The Regional Administrative Court for Lazio has accepted the appeal proposed by committees and associations (Committee Tables of the Port, Lipu ODV, Saifo, Unione Inquilini Fiumicino) and from 18 citizens residing in Fiumicino/Isola Sacra for the cancellation of the EIA decree with which the Ministry of the Environment, in agreement with the Ministry of Culture, had given a positive opinion of Environmental compatibility of the port project tourist-cruise of Fiumicino - Isola Sacra, proposed by the Municipality of Fiumicino as the concessionaire and be carried out within the framework of a ninety-year concession by Fiumicino Waterfront, a subsidiary of Cruise Terminals International Limited (CTI) in turn 90% owned by funds assisted by iCON Infrastructure and 10% by the group U.S. cruise ship Royal Caribbean ( of 24 February 2022).

The Regional Administrative Court for Lazio upheld the first ground of appeal of the measure as the project has been qualified as a "tourist port" pursuant to Presidential Decree 509/1997, which allowed the Municipality of Fiumicino to present itself as a subject proponent of the EIA, while this qualification is considered incorrect as the Presidential Decree requires that the infrastructure serves "solely or primarily" pleasure boating, while the project, while talking about a recreational function "prevailing" actually provides for a cruise line being provided - specifies the sentence - an ad hoc pier for the landing of cruise ships, which will stop permanently in the airport (in home-port mode) for about 200 days a year, and which will contribute significantly to the decisive factor in the potential passage in the port area of about 1.3 million tourists. The cruise function - explains the sentence - must be legally traced back to the "passenger service" to the pursuant to Article 4, paragraph 3, letter c) of Law no. 84 of 1994 and must be kept clearly distinct from the "tourist and pleasure boating" referred to in letter e) below). The judgment notes that, since it is therefore not a tourist port but a port multifunctional with a significant cruise component, the Municipality of Fiumicino was not entitled to act as proponent of the EIA, competence that belongs to other entities within the framework of the law 84/1994.

For the national and regional Filt Cgil of Rome and Lazio, whose intervention ad adiuvandum together with that of ANCIP was admitted by the Regional Administrative Court, that of the court constitutes "a a decision that represents an important reminder of the need to guarantee transparency, administrative correctness and full compliance with the rules governing the port sector, in the protection of the public interest and of workers involved". Expressing "satisfaction with the motivations of the judgment", the trade union organization noted that "Particularly significant is the fact that the TAR has recognized the full legitimacy of our intervention, noting the concrete interest of our trade union organization with respect to the correct classification of the airport and the consequent repercussions on port work and on the structure of the system of ports. The reasons for the sentence therefore incorporate a our reading, sustained with determination throughout the procedure and which was also shared by the others intervened in support of the appeal, confirming the need to address the issue of the development of the port of Fiumicino in compliance with the rules, institutional competences and of the correct port planning".

"We will continue - added the Transport Federation of the CGIL - to carefully follow the developments of the affair, so that future choices relating to the port of Fiumicino are taken in compliance with the law, the planning of the national port system and the needs employment in the sector".