Premier Giuseppe Conte, Deputy
Premier and Industry and Labour Minister Luigi Di Maio, and
Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli said after meeting 'Si TAV'
campaigners for the completion of the Turin-Lyon high-speed rail
line Wednesday that "transparency, listening, balance and a
pragmatic approach are the key words that mark our action, as it
has been till today and will be also for all the other
infrastructural works".
They said "this government wants to launch a signal of
attention for Turin and it is in the field for relaunching the
economy and the productive fabric of all the territory, with
investments and support for business".
Di Maio's 5-Star Movement has succeeded in putting the
project off pending a cost/benefit analysis despite its League
partner's support for completing it.
On the cost/benefit analysis, Conte, Di Maio and Toninelli
said Wednesday that the government had reaffirmed "its
commitment to act in a required but swift time frame".
They said the meeting with the Si TAV representatives had
been "long and fruitful" and the three ministers had "listened
to the arguments in favour of the TAV".
"I'm absolutely not a no TAV", said Toninelli.
"I'm on the side of Italians and I want make sure that public
money is spent well on infrastructures," he said.
He also said it was "false" that Italy would lose 75 million
euros a month if the project is not completed.
The head of a Turin small-business association said Wednesday
the government had assured them there would be a response on the
TAV high-speed rail link between Turin and Lyon before next
year's European elections in May.
Ascom Torino President Maria Luisa Coppa said at a press
conference of Piedmont businesses in favour of the TAV that "the
government assured us that the letter signed yesterday with
France is not a way to put off the TAV and that there will be a
response before the European vote".
The government has put the project on ice pending a
cost/benefit analysis.
One of the two government partners, the 5-Star Movement, is
against the TAV and has promised the large No TAV lobby that it
will be blocked.
The other partner, the League, is in favour of completing the
project.
There is a rising Si TAV movement, mainly among
businesspeople, that is contesting the No TAV campaign.
France warned recently the project might lose EU funds if it
were delayed for too long.
The postponement of the publication of the tenders of TAV
company TELT "freezes per se any aspect of the procedure,"
transport ministry sources said Tuesday.
Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli earlier said that on
Monday he signed with his French counterpart Elisabeth Borne "a
letter to jointly ask TELT to publish the tenders first expected
in December after the end of 2018".
Some 60% of Italian businesses called for the project to go
ahead in a major meeting in Turin Monday, along with other
blocked infrastructure projects.
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