Big EU rail project advances in Italy, but opposition remains

The green Susa Valley in northern Italy has shown perhaps the longest opposition to EU infrastructure plans. DW’s Sergio Matalucci takes a look at what’s behind the spat between locals and the central government.

“Who’s there?” asks a woman. Her dog barks as I walk down the empty streets of the Alpine village of San Didero, 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the border between Italy and France.

As peaceful as it might first seem, the Susa Valley has long been a battlefield for a conflict between the government in Rome and large swathes of the local population. At stake is a central part of the EU 2030 railway network passing through Lyon and Turin, and with it, the future of this green area in the Piedmont region.

When it comes to the Turin-Lyon high-speed route, the common sentiment in Italy is simple: An excruciating battle started in the late 1990s which should come to an end, one way or another. Most Italians perceive the local residents as opponents of progress and EU interests, ready to resort to violence.

The sentiment in the valley is quite the opposite: The locals feel sidelined. When they travel outside the region, some feel they are treated like terrorists.

Public engagement

The issue that created these tensions in the first place is the one that the project is still paying for: lack of public engagement.

“The problem stems from the way the project and the relationship with local communities were set up: a self-referenced project in the railway world, where the territory was simply ancillary,” Mario Virano, director general of the binational public promoter responsible for the cross-border section of the Tunnel Euralpin Lyon Turin (TELT), told DW.

“The methodology, not very open to confrontation, gave the impression the work was an imposition from above. It led to a conflict that exploded in 2005,” he added.

The project changed in 2006, he explained. Including proposals from local institutions, it now involves a less invasive route, and includes €100 million ($119 million) for infrastructure buildout in the valley.

“The analysis of the costs and benefits of stakeholder engagement should form part of an overall economic evaluation of public work,” Francesca Pagliara, associate professor of transportation systems planning at the University of Naples Federico II, told DW. “Yet to date, such perspectives remain overlooked. The EU should provide guidelines for the quantification of the costs and benefits of stakeholder engagement,” she said.

Different narratives

Though less vocal today than in the early 2000s, local communities keep protesting.

“The activists are the new partisans protecting their lands. We are feeling left out, and rightly so,” Loredana Bellone, a local politician, told DW. “When I was mayor of San Didero, security forces were deployed without notifying me. The same is happening now. They are often attacking us, using tear gas.” Bellone’s son-in-law is a policeman. The project is dividing towns and even families.

“Official forecasts assume that the demand for the rail line is expected to increase 20 times by 2059. An expectation that for me is totally unrealistic,” Paolo Beria, associate professor of transport economics at Polytechnic University of Milan, told DW.

According to Beria, the forecasts also fail to factor in the contextual improvements in other lines from Italy to Central Europe, like the Brenner, the Gotthard, and the Nice-Ventimiglia. “They will compete with Turin-Lyon,” he said

Companies and industrial lobbies retort, saying that the 1871 Frejus rail tunnel is inefficient. They argue that new infrastructure is required to increase competitiveness and accommodate new business models.

“Northern Italy accounts for 70% of the country’s exports. The Turin-Lyon line is part of a process of greater international integration,” Giorgio Marsiaj, president of the Employers’ Association of Turin (UIT), told DW.

Marsiaj added that Italy must focus on exports in order to resume growth, explaining that it had not managed logistics to the best of its ability. “This has negative repercussions for Europe in general.”

“A greater connection of Turin with Europe will benefit the entire working population, young people and entrepreneurs,” agreed Paolo Damilano, the center-right candidate for mayor in Turin.

Tiziana Beghin, member of the European Parliament for Italy’s Five Star Movement, also sees the need for new high-speed connections, but questions the usefulness of this particular project.

“Our opposition is based on practical financial and environmental reasons,” said Beghin. “The work in progress is only of a preparatory nature — it is still possible to stop it and evaluate other solutions, taking into account the real traffic data of goods on the route.”

The EU is supposed to fund at least 40% of the transnational section —the part between France and Italy which is in an area where international jurisdiction applies. Of the remaining 60%, Italy will cover 35% and France 25%.

Source: dw.com