The opinion of the Unified Conference arrived yesterday in favour of the bill of "Reorganization of Law 28 January 1994, no. 84, on port governance and relaunch of investments in strategic transport infrastructures maritime of general interest", after the Conference of the Regions and Autonomous Provinces who had expressed the opinion of the positive by majority on the decree, with the vote against expressed by the Regions of Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Puglia and Sardinia.

In a note, the common body of the Regions and Provinces autonomous, remembering that the concern several times expressed by the Regions is that the reform imposes a centralization of port governance to the detriment of autonomy of the Port System Authorities, with an insufficient involvement of the territories in the allocation of resources, noted that the positive opinion in the Unified Conference " is therefore conditional on the acceptance of a series of amendments discussed and shared on the various occasions of meeting with Deputy Minister Edoardo Rixi and the Ministry's technicians. The regional requests - specifies the note - relate to the management extraordinary maintenance, to be left to the Authorities port authorities, the recognition of needs, and in particular concern the composition of the supervisory and management bodies. A these amendments already shared with the MIT are also added the request to consider the role of the so-called Regions ports, i.e. those landlocked, which ask for representation within the Management Committee'.

The opinion of the Unified Conference was welcomed by Deputy Minister Rixi: it is - he underlined - of "an important step that confirms the method chosen from the beginning: to build a modern reform, concrete and as much as possible shared with all the actors involved, starting from the territories. The comparison with Municipalities, Provinces and Regions has been useful in strengthening the role of the territories in the strategic choices concerning the development of our stopovers. The Italian port system needs more efficiency, decision-making capacity and long-term planning period, but also of an increasingly close relationship with the communities that host these infrastructures. Let's continue now the institutional path with the aim of arriving at a reform balanced, capable of enhancing the autonomy of the territories, accelerate investments and make our ports more competitive in Europe and in the world. The starting spirit - he concluded Rixi - remains that of a reform built together, in the interest of the country".