Brussels, 17/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - The Italian minister for infrastructure, Antonio Di Pietro, announced on Monday 16 July that he would be submitting an Italian request for the funding of four railway projects, notably the Italian Lyon-Turin section (project 6). He also explained that he would be meeting the vice president of the Commission in charge of transport, Jacques Barrot, in this connection, on Wednesday 18 July, two days before the call for tenders open to candidates in the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T) is closed (it was launched last May, EUROPE 9432). He also announced that he was confident that Italy would receive Commission funding. Earlier in the day, Di Pietro and the French minister for ecology, Jean-Louis Borloo, signed a joint letter addressed to Mr Barrot requesting €725 million for 2007-13 from the joint fund for the future high-speed Lyon-Turin railway link.
At his meeting with Jacques Barrot on Wednesday, Di Pietro will ask for €1bn for three cross-border projects (two sections of the priority TEN-T high-speed railway axis project for Turin-Lyon and Triest-Divacci in Slovenia and the Brenner railway tunnel linking Italy to Austria via the No.1 priority project and a high-speed Milan-Genoa link). Italy is expected to provide an additional €2.4bn. France and Italy both requested additional funding for the Lyon-Turin link. On Monday 16 July in Rome, Jean-Louis Borloo and Antonio Di Pietro signed the joint request to the Commission for €725million (494 for Italy and 231 million for France) for the cross-border section link (Mont Cenis tunnel and access) between Saint-Jean de Maurienne in France to Chiomonte (Chaumont) in Italy. 90% of it will consist of a long tunnel of almost 52 kilometres in length. In their joint letter, the two ministers sketched out a new outline for the Italian side, taking into account the opposition of the local people (the inhabitants of the Suse Valley). Changing the outline will lead to construction costs of between €7.6 billion and 9 billion. Ministers also established a new calendar that will see construction work begin by the first half of 2012 instead of 2011 as initially planned. The Commission, which has already received other funding requests, will reach a decision next autumn. (aby)