For the first time, Italy is bringing another EU member state before the European Court of Justice. And he does this against a government that, on paper, is supposed to be a “friend” of Austria. The reason for this is the border Brenner Pass, which has been a nightmare for Italian transporters for years, contrary to the principle of free movement of people and goods enshrined in the EU Treaties.
Almost half of Italian exports, which Confcommercio estimates at a value of over 130 billion euros, pass through here. Vienna continues to impose restrictions on the passage of transport vehicles and complains about the high impact of transit on the environment. At the beginning of the month, the queues on the Italian side reached 110 kilometers. According to CNA, this has a significant impact on companies’ costs: Damage from border blockades for heavy motorists amounts to 251 million euros per year.
The path of diplomacy has not yielded results for now. And so Transport Minister Matteo Salvini decided to appeal to the EU Court to return Austria to more tolerant advice. Salvini stated in a note that this was “a difficult but necessary choice, given the Commission’s wait-and-see attitude and the impossibility of reaching a negotiated solution.” “Are Austria’s bans on heavy traffic legitimate, or whether the principle of free movement of goods and persons enshrined in the Treaties applies”.
If the note is correct, Salvini’s statement a few minutes ago was not correct. The leader of the union said that he was at the wrong address at the press conference in Palazzo Chigi: “The council of ministers ordered an appeal to the Strasbourg Court,” he told reporters. The court in Strasbourg is actually the European Court of Human Rights and is not part of the EU. The Court of Justice of the EU is located in Luxembourg.
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Source: Today IT
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
