Because Brussels has said yes to state aid to Trenitalia and Ntv
Green light from the EU Commission for 511 million euros of state aid granted by Italy to railway operators to deal with the damage suffered in the first wave of the pandemic. Gabriele Rosana's article
Green light from the European Commission to 511 million euros of state aid granted by Italy to railway operators to deal with the damage suffered in the first wave of the pandemic.
While new closures and new lockdowns are on the horizon and a common position has not yet been formed on ordered and aligned reopening in Europe to save the tourist season, Brussels definitively approved, yesterday, the measure granted by the Giallorossi government to operators of the commercial long-distance passenger rail transport services Trenitalia / Ferrovie dello Stato and Italo Treno / Ntv.
The EU authority's ok refers to a scheme of direct subsidies notified by the Italian executive and adopted to compensate for the losses that operators suffered between 8 March and 30 June 2020, due to the pandemic and restrictive measures to contain the spread of the virus, including a general ban on travel between regions (in effect until June 3) and a mandatory alternating seat reservation system that has reduced seats available to passengers by 50%.
In the reference period, the number of travelers decreased, reaching peaks of even -100% compared to 2019. Significant decrease for the revenues of Trenitalia and Italo, which in any case had to face costs and consequent liquidity problems – reads the note prepared by the Commission's Directorate-General for Competition -: railway transport operators have in fact continued to incur additional expenses to strengthen sanitary and hygienic measures.
“This is the positive outcome of a fruitful dialogue that Italy has had in recent months with the Commission”, commented the Minister of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility Enrico Giovannini. “By establishing that the measure to support the railway sector is in line with the EU rules on the state aid regime, Brussels acknowledged the reasons of our railway operators who have been waiting for this decision for some time. This is an important communication that intervenes in support of a sector, an almost unique example in Europe of real competition in high-speed rail ", added the owner of the Porta Pia dicastery, who now plans to continue the dialogue with Brussels for the recognition of the losses of the railway sector also in the second half of 2020, this time also involving the freight sector.
The aid just approved "will allow Italy to support long-distance rail passenger transport operators on commercial lines in this difficult period, compensating them for the damage suffered due to the emergency measures adopted by Italy during the first wave of the pandemic ”, Said from Brussels Margrethe Vestager, the executive vice-president of the Commission responsible for competition. The European Union "continues to work with all Member States to ensure that national support measures can be implemented as quickly and effectively as possible, in line with EU standards," added the Danish liberal.
Vestager's reference is to the full flexibility adopted with respect to the European rules on state aid. It is the same EU discipline that provides in the Treaties the okay for subsidies by the Member States to help companies cope with the damage caused by exceptional events. A regime that, for a year, has been running in parallel with the suspension of the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact – the EU regulation on public accounts of the Stability and Growth Pact (extended for the whole of 2022) – and that the Commission has system in its coordinated economic response to the Covid-19 emergency of March 2020.
In this context, Brussels has also provided for a temporary framework for state aid whose operation at the beginning of the year was extended until 31 December 2021 ( here the catalog is constantly updated).
About forty measures concerning Italy, so far: just before this concerning the railway sector, the Commission had authorized at the beginning of the month 10 million in aid to Toscana Aeroporti, the managing body of the airports of Florence and Pisa.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/perche-bruxelles-ha-detto-si-agli-aiuti-di-stato-a-trenitalia-e-ntv/ on Thu, 11 Mar 2021 14:31:25 +0000.