The TAP will take place. The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella on a visit to Azerbaijan confirmed that Italy will not obstruct the southern gas corridor. The pipeline of controversy, therefore, will arrive on the Apulian coast in that framework of energy supplies and diversification of sources so necessary for Italy.
Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi was also with the head of state in Azerbaijan, who shares the construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline in support of international collaboration. It is known that other members of the government think differently, but the gas infrastructure is part of a larger economic and commercial exchange. Mattarella explained that the pipeline gives greater energy security and strengthens interregional cooperation from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean and Europe.
Europe, on the other hand, has opened credit lines through the EIB in support of the 40 billion dollar project on which the Italian Snam is engaged. The company is involved with a substantial share in the international construction consortium. The capital invested has already made it possible to arrive on the other side of the Adriatic and the uncertainties and oppositions of environmentalists are doing neither Italian energy strategies nor political debate any good. According to Reuters, the Minister of the Environment Sergio Costa after an initial rejection of the TAP ("useless work") rectified the position hoping for a forthcoming joint decision by the government.
In the Apulian territory the protests have not stopped, the region envisages a different landing point from that of Melendugno, despite the various environmental and landscape authorizations obtained some time ago. Supporters of the project, supported also by initiatives and debates within the EU, continue to hope that in 2020 gas from Azerbaijan will arrive in Italian homes. The times of controversy and opposition should be over.
