An Austrian ban on lorries from Italy has sparked outrage in Rome, prompting threats that the Italian government will go to Luxembourg to sue the Austrian government at the EU top court.
The Austria-Italy transit lane at the Brenner pass is a crucial transport route for goods. An overabundance of Italian lorries prompted the regional Tyrol government to restrict the amount of lorries that may make the journey.
Matteo Salvini, the far-right transport minister, has now announced that Rome would head to the EU’s top court to challenge the measure, alleging that Austria violated EU laws as he announced in Rome on Wednesday.
Vienna is at pains to show it is not worried about the challenge. She said transport Minister Leonore Gewessler is “very relaxed” at the prospect of a lawsuit.
The health and living conditions of the people in Tyrol were “less important to them than the profits of the Italian haulage lobby”, she told APA.
Tyrol’s governor struck a similar tone. “In the meantime, these threats of legal action are going unheeded in Tyrol because for us, the protection of health, the environment and the infrastructure are more important than the fossil fuel transport policy in Italy,” Anton Mattle (ÖVP, EPP) told APA.
Salvini, for his part, is outraged. “We cannot accept that Austria unilaterally closes an Alpine pass without anyone doing anything. This is a violation of EU rules, a blatant abuse that needs to be solved,” he said, adding that Rome was working on a water-tight case relying on Article 259 of the treaties – the clause that allows EU countries to sue one another if they believe them to violate EU rules.
The EU Commission stressed the need for cooperation between the two countries.
(Nikolaus J. Kurmayer | Euractiv.de)
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