In Ventotene a project for the recovery of the Bourbon prison

Thursday 4 June 2020 meeting of the institutional table with the extraordinary commissioner Silvia Costa. In the symbolic place of united Europe, 2016 million euros have to be spent since 70.

Two Ministers – Dario Franceschini, Minister for Cultural Heritage, Giuseppe Provenzano, Minister for the South – an Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council – Riccardo Fraccaro – the mayor of Ventotene – Gerardo Santomauro – and the Government Commissioner, Silvia Costa: all together to restart the recovery project of the former Bourbon prison of Ventotene. On Thursday 4 June, together with a good number of managers from the Lazio Region, the Ministry of the Environment and the Protected Area, they will try to give legs to a 70 million euro plan. The prison, located in Santo Stefano, a symbol of the anti-fascist struggle and of the European construction with the names of illustrious prisoners, is in an intolerable state of abandonment.

The two islands of Ventotene and S. Stefano also make up one of the most beautiful protected areas in the Mediterranean. And committing to relaunching them means paying attention to the protection of an extraordinary habitat.

The rebirth project of the old fortress has been going on for years. Appeals, visits by heads of government (Renzi in 2016 with Merkel and Hollande), investigations, environmentalist solicitations have raised the need for serious action at a European level. But everything went slowly, until in January of this year the government took note of the situation and appointed Silvia Costa, special commissioner for the project.

Silvia Costa, a long-standing parliamentarian, immediately got to work and called tomorrow's meeting. You are concerned, above all, about the December 2020 deadline for the use of the 70 million euros.The meeting was to be held in the most difficult weeks of the coronavirus. Thanks to the extended times, let's hope that now the protagonists really set the organizational and construction machine in motion. That table has the responsibility of making a work plan with cultural, political, sustainable, pro-European implications feasible.

“I hope – Costa explained – that Thursday marks the beginning of a new journey to achieve together the objective which is the basis of the Institutional Development Contract. And this despite the great problems that exist in meeting the deadlines". However, the Commissioner let it be known that if everything starts, the use of the money is foreseen one year (at least) after the current deadline of December 2020. Europe will have to agree. 

What has happened to date is described by the Association for Santo Stefano in Ventotene : as of May 2016, 70 million euros have been earmarked for this project. To carry out the interventions, an Institutional Development Contract (CIS) was signed on 3 August 2017. The contract provides for the establishment of a permanent institutional table, chaired by the undersecretary to the presidency of the Council of Ministers, which has already met three times. In December 2017 to formally start its work, in February 2018 to hold the hearings of the organizations and associations interested in implementing the project, in June 2019 for an update of the activities and for the presentation of a pre-feasibility study. A really slow pace that for four years has held a project that, conversely, can give new prestige to Italy. The rebirth of Ventotene is, in fact, a strong and distinctive signal for Europe. For that idea of ​​community, threatened today by ignorance and lack of culture, admirably described by Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi in 1941 in the famous Manifesto "For a free and united Europe". An idea that cannot be punished by bureaucracy, worse by political inefficiency. But we don't want to believe it.