It is still in course the series of meetings started last 4 September on the proposals of the new Portuale Town development plan of Genoa promoted from the Authority of Harbour System of the Western Ligurian Sea, that it has decided to present a deliberately not definitive but flexible PRP in order to avoid that functional rigidity can be revealed a limit more than a guarantee, and to underporlo, before the institutional passages real and own, to a round of consultations involving harbour clusters, institutions, institutions, institutions of category and associations The institutional calendar previews the pre-option of the PRP by the AdSP Management Committee between the end of this year and January 2027, then the start of the Strategic Environmental Assessment and the definitive approval by 2028.

Evidently, purpose of the harbour agency with the program of meetings is to anticipate the comparison, reducing the risk of conflicts in the most formal phase of evaluation of the Plan. However, it remains to be seen how the observations collected these days will result in substantial changes in the proposal, and not only in verbal reassurances. Some nodes emerged, in fact, from the dimension of the Pra' dock, to the placement of the chemical deposits of Multedo and to the extent of the fillings in the historical basin of the genoese port, see positions difficult to reconcile between those, like the operators and the unions, pushes for greater infrastructure capacity and those, firstly the citizens' committees, asks for the containment of the impact on the urban districts.

Compared to these themes, the risk is that, inevitably, it is moved forward, in the phase of drafting of the definitive proposal and in the VAS, the moment in which you will see concretely how the instances of the territory will have engraved regarding those of the economic operators, that is when the Harbour System Authority of the Western Ligurian Sea, coherently with its institutional role, will have to "make synthesis and assume the responsibility of the choices", as specified from the president of the course, Matteo Paroli. The hope of the authority is that, however, these meetings serve, if not to settle, at least to reduce some differences: "if at the end of this path the proposal was simply the photograph of the one from which we started - it has emphasized Paroli - we would have lost an opportunity".

Space for a comparison that the AdSP intends to maintain even after formal adoption of the PRP thanks also to a Plan set on flexibility rather than rigidity: "we have presented hypotheses built on studies and analysis - Paroli has explained - so that they can be put to the test: some may be developed more ambitiously, other refurbished, others still find different configurations. The last five years have taught us how quickly geopolitical balances, routes, markets and logistic chains can change. It would therefore be a mistake to govern the next decades by stiffening today every function and every space. The Plan must give certainties to those who invest, but also allow the harbour system to adapt to changes that today we cannot predict. We must at the same time learn from the experiences of the past, overcoming the ambiguities on the functions that have produced different interpretations and litigations. Flexibility - the president of the AdSP has specified - does not mean indeterminateness: every forecast must have an industrial reason and demonstrate its technical, environmental and economic sustainability".

Meanwhile, the listening path of the instances of the various interested parties began on September 4 with the tables with the shipowning associations Confitarma and Assarmatori, who expressed a positive opinion on the method chosen by the AdSP to illustrate the proposals before the institutional steps. On September 8 it was the turn of Uniport, Assiterminal, Assologistica and Federlogistica, who have deepened the actions of Piano regarding the operating needs of the terminals, with container, rotabili and passengers indicated as the segments of traffic with the greater perspectives of increase. On the same day, with Agens and Fercargo (RFI and Mercitalia Shunting & Terminal) it is discussed of the potenziamento of the harbour railway system, last mile, of parks and internal stations and of connections with the national network, also in view of the full valorization of the Third railway valley. On 9 September the comparison with Confindustria Genova focused on the economic sustainability of the interventions: the AdSP has illustrated an approach that aims to contain new territorial expansions and the use of only public resources, enhancing instead public-private partnerships, in view also of the evaluation of the Higher Council of Public Works on the economic sustainability of the works. On September 10, three meetings were held. With the Network of Associations of San Teodoro the themes of quality of air and health have been deepened. With the unions Fit-Cisl, Uiltrasporti, Uilm-Uil, Fiom-Cgil and Filt-Cgil the judgement on the method was positive, provided the expected flexibility is accompanied by a clear direction of the AdSP. In particular, the unions have asked to safeguard the bulk avoiding losses of functions and occupation, have welcomed positively the choice not to predict the transfer of chemical deposits to Bridge Somalia and have urged to deepen a possible greater lengthening of the dock of Pra' than the current hypothesis, more contained than the scenarios initially considered. Positive meeting also on the development of ship repairs and shipbuilding in Genoa Levante. With the Company Unica Lavoratori Merci Varie "Paride Batini" the comparison focused on the occupational growth of quality linked to the development of container, bulk and passengers.

The meetings continued on 16 September with the participation of the Liguria Region that confirmed the sharing of the general setting of the Plan. For Savona and Vado Ligure no particular observations emerged. Several proposals have been formulated for Genoa: for the industrial area, to deepen protection systems at sea for the nautical one and a different path between the crossing of Levante and Molo Giano; for the commercial historical basin, preserve the connection between container and rotabili, carefully evaluating any fillings of the magnets; for the areas ex Ilva, maintain its industrial vocation opening also to blue economy activities, and evaluate in Multedo spaces for shipbuilding activities now concentrated in the Levant; for Pra', maintain to the study also configurations of docks wider than that currently in proposal. On the same day the Liberi Committee citizens of Certosa has emphasized the railway mobility and the interference between traffics of dangerous goods and the neighborhood, asking for specific tables with the competent subjects on the network. So the coordination committee Ponente-Palmaro has asked to evaluate also the transfer outside Genoa of the chemical deposits of Multedo, expressing reservations on the hypothesis of Sestri Ponente, and has manifested opposition to any filling of the basin of Pra', urging appropriate mitigations for the railway.

Finally, yesterday the harbour agency has met Pilots, Trailers and Ormeggiatori to verify, basin by basin, the nautical accessibility and the safety of the maneuvers regarding the hypothesized functional destinations. In the afternoon, the association of the marine agents Assagenti and that of the shippers Spediporto have expressed a positive assessment on the flexible and multifunctional approach of the Plan, however asking to protect the traffics of bulk, avoiding that fillings and reorganization of the magnets limit the handling, to widen the space on the ground for the empty containers, to realize a unified center for the frontier controls, than concentric the functions of the marine ones

To date, the path of listening adopted by the harbour agency seems to have worked as a tool of collection and attenuation of the most obvious tensions, but the true test bench of the method chosen by Paroli will be the proposal of Piano that will follow: only there can be measured how much of the often opposite instances of operators, unions, Region and committees have actually been incorporated. Throughout the course, the president of the AdSP insisted on some key concepts: the need for a Plan that "certainties to functions and investments without stiffening for the next decades the arrangement of ports"; the overcoming of the "interpretative ambiguities between primary, secondary and admitted functions that in the past have generated litigations"; economic sustainability as an "essential condition to make any development forecast concrete". Moreover, Paroli reiterated that the proposals presented are not "documents carved in stone", but basics of work that the Authority intends to measure with those who represent work, enterprises, citizens and territory, and then, in fact, "to make synthesis and assume responsibility for the choices".

These choices, on the basis of what emerged during the meetings, or it would be better to say it resurfaced, seem to have to address five major themes. That of the preservation of the comprehension of the functions in the historical basin and of Sampierdarena in order to avoid that fillings, reorganization of the calate or increase of other traffics (container, rotabili) compress the spaces and the handling of the bulk, as required both from the unions and from Assagenti and Spediporto.

Assai more ardua is the choice on the question of the dock of Pra', being the positions presented much more divergent, with the Liguria Region and the unions that ask to maintain to the study scenarios of dock wider than the most contained one inserted in the present proposal and with the Ponente-Palmaro Committee that asks the exact opposite, that is no filling of the basin, together with mitigations for the railway potenziamento. the Authority of Harbour System has responded keeping open the studies on the broader configurations, conditioning them to technical, environmental and economic sustainability, and presenting as counterpart for the territory the connection between the banks of the Calma Canal and green hills of mitigation. In addition, the AdSP has specified that any filling hypotheses should be evaluated not isolatedly, but within the total reorganization of the harbour functions, holding together needs of development of the traffics, operativity of the terminal, sustainability of the interventions and relationship with the territory.

Another hot topic is that of the chemical deposits of Multedo. The Ponente-Palmaro Committee and the unions have touched on the theme from different angles, with the seconds that expressed appreciation for the fact that the Plan does not preview the transfer to Bridge Somalia, while the Committee has asked to evaluate a true transfer just outside the Genoese territory, expressing reservations on the hypothesis of Sestri Ponente.

Then there is the question of the spaces and infrastructures of service to the goods and the more general theme of the port-city relationship, with the Committee of Certosa that has asked tables dedicated on railway and dangerous goods and with more committees and the Region that have discussed the works of recucitura port-city as counterpart to the growth of the harbour activities.

It will be precisely the ability to hold together these five knots - without dissolving the announced flexibility in indeterminateness, nor transform the listening in a postponement of the most difficult choices - to say if the new Portuale Town development plan will really be, as promised, a tool able to adapt to the future without downloading on the operators and on the territory the account of its uncertainties.