The Tap project — the gas pipeline that is set to bring 10 billion cubic metres of natural gas directly to the shores of Salento — will press on: the penalty clauses are too high to walk away. Citizens protest.
The Trans Adriatic Pipeline will go ahead. The project that is set to bring 10 billion cubic metres of natural gas to Italy, from Azerbaijan directly to the shores of Salento, will not be halted by the Italian government because doing so would cost too much: up to 35 billion euros.
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The announcement was made directly by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte last Friday, who was forced to return to the subject following protests by No Tap activists. "Following the latest checks carried out by Environment Minister Costa, we have had to acknowledge that no grounds of illegitimacy have emerged that would justify halting the construction of the Tap project," Conte explained, addressing in particular the residents of Melendugno and San Foca — the municipality affected by the gas pipeline's construction and its coastal hamlet. He went on to add that the penalty clauses payable in the event of unilateral termination of the project would be extremely high, and unsustainable: "By halting the Tap project, the Italian state would become embroiled in lengthy litigation it would lose, the costs of which could amount, on a conservative estimate, to somewhere between 20 and 35 billion euros."
The explanation, however, does not appear to have convinced the activists of the No Tap committees in Melendugno, who over the weekend gave full vent to their anger at what they consider a broken promise: opposition to Tap was indeed one of the main battles of the Movimento 5 Stelle, which oversees both the Ministry of the Environment (with Sergio Costa) and the Ministry for the South (with Barbara Lezzi), as well as the Ministry of Economic Development (Luigi Di Maio) — even though, in reality, the coalition agreement between Lega and Movimento 5 Stelle contains no direct references to the gas pipeline: the Pugliese activists also protested by burning electoral cards and Movimento 5 Stelle flags.
"There is no contract between the Italian state and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline that endorses any hypothesis of penalty clauses," the No Tap group in Melendugno stated, explaining that the figures put forward by the government would in reality be merely "the compensation that Socar (the Azerbaijani energy company, ed.) would seek in the event of withdrawal," should litigation actually arise.
Minister Barbara Lezzi explained, however, that "Movimento 5 Stelle gave no authorisation to Tap; we now find ourselves in a position where we cannot stop a procedure that has already been closed: initiated, carried out and concluded by the previous government." But even former Minister of Economic Development Carlo Calenda (who is in favour of Tap) pointed out that the contract between the parties does not in fact contain any penalty clauses: the matter remains unresolved, even though the construction of the gas pipeline now appears to be a certainty.