An amendment that could represent a real threat to marine areas of environmental significance was introduced last week during the debate in the Chamber on the examination of the proposed law on protected areas.

The law in question is that of 6 December 1991, no. 394, and further provisions on protected areas. The threat, meanwhile, is posed by drilling rigs that risk remaining in territorial waters without any time limit.

According to the No Triv committee, the article of the law was intended to ban drilling in protected areas, but in practice has the opposite effect due to the addition of certain words such as "without prejudice to activities currently under way and those strictly consequential to them" which, by specifying no time limit, allow oil companies to continue their extraction activities within 12 miles indefinitely.

"The approved amendment is not in itself wrong: its purpose is to prohibit hydrocarbon exploration and extraction activities in parks, not to permit them. The 'strictly consequential' activities referred to in the amendment cannot be prospecting and exploration activities for the simple reason that, as anyone understands, these are activities 'consequential' to extraction, whereas prospecting and exploration are activities that precede extraction itself. The problem lies elsewhere: it was necessary to specify that ongoing activities could not be extended: it is this that, if anything, makes the provision unreasonable and therefore not in keeping with the noble objective of protecting parks and areas," explained Enzo di Salvatore, Associate Professor of Constitutional Law at the Università degli Studi di Teramo and co-founder of the No Triv Movement.

The 12-mile question

Setting aside the protected areas law, the critical issue of the 12 miles and the blurred boundary between what the law provides and its various interpretations remains. On 3 April this year, ministerial decree no. 78 of 3 April 2017 was published in the Official Gazette, concerning the granting and exercise of mining titles for the prospecting, exploration and production of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons onshore, in the territorial sea and on the continental shelf. ministerial decree no. 78 of 3 April 2017 Following its publication, a parliamentary motion was tabled to limit drilling in territorial waters, that is, within 12 miles. The initiative originated from a proposal by the Coordinamento Nazionale No Triv, in collaboration with Associazione A Sud and Green Italia, and aims to prevent the ministerial decree from allowing the construction of new platforms and wells located within 12 nautical miles of the Italian coast. The decree, in fact, allows those who already hold a concession to modify the submitted projects and thereby obtain authorisation for new activities, still within the scope of the same concession already granted. The risk is that oil companies may freely increase extraction activities within 12 miles. According to the associations, the text, in addition to circumventing the substantive ban on drilling near the coast, presents two other serious areas of concern: the possibility of promoting extraction activities in the Gulf of Venice area, and the substantial undermining of the constitutional prerogatives of the Regions in the process of granting concessions.

The Constitutional Court's clarifications

Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court, with ruling no. 114/2017, has clarified that the expression "useful life of the reservoir", contained in art. 6, paragraph 17, of the Environmental Code, applies only to concessions for the extraction of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons within 12 miles and not also to exploration permits. In other words, all exploration permits, variously named, that currently apply within 12 nautical miles do not fall within the conditions provided for by law. This means that permits for all exploration activities in territorial waters can be revoked. To date there are 24 exploration permits, divided into six zones: Upper Adriatic (9 exploration permits), Zone B Central Adriatic (6 permits), Zone C Sicily Channel (4 permits), Zone D Adriatic and Ionian Sea (4 permits), Zone F also Adriatic and Ionian Sea (5 permits) and Zone F, located again in the Sicily Channel where there are 3 exploration permits.

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