Brussels, 26/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission may provide financial aid to save Pompeii and other historic sites in Italy if the Italian government submits tangible proposals before spring.
The funding would come from a re-allocation of €1bn of funding for a culture programme for the Mezzogiorno in Italy. The idea is that the programme would focus on key archaeological sites of huge historical and cultural value, explained Ton van Lierop, a spokesperson for EU Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn. Van Lierop added that it was now for the Italian government to make tangible proposals to the commissioner before spring of this year and the Commission would then see what money can be reserved for the archaeological sites in question. Pompeii should certainly be one of the sites covered by the reconfiguring of the culture programme, added Ton van Lierop. The spokesperson explained that the EU cash could cover half of the projects' financing needs but that will depend in part on the nature of the projects, and the Commission is waiting to receive a list with the intention of using this funding for the sites. Van Lierop said that €1bn had been allocated to the entire programme but not all of that could be spent on archaeological sites. Part of the programme has already been used and tangible proposals are needed before any decisions are made, and for that reason he refused to give any indication of figures or even approximate figures.
The Gladiator's House in Pompeii collapsed in November 2010 amidst consternation and outage in Italy about the conservation of archaeological sites. (G.B./transl.fl)