«The Municipality of Corigliano-Rossano has never been against Baker Hughes’ investment, but is simply protecting the prospects and interests of the community, especially employment, also through the regularity of procedures». The mayor of the center of Cosenza said it, Flavio Stasispeaking during the City Council meeting convened with a single point on the agenda, the 60 million euro investment planned by Baker Hughes in the port of Corigliano Rossano, with the creation of two hundred jobs. In recent weeks, Baker Hughes announced that it had given up on the project, justifying the decision with the difficulties posed by the municipal administration.
“It is established – added Stasi – that the only way to recover the investment, in the clear immobility of higher institutions, is to give the company a solid title. We have always underlined, in good time, our criticisms of the project and proposed solutions which, however, have never been accepted, nor met, with counter-proposals, starting from that of a Memorandum of Understanding that would establish the non-industrial direction of all the docks not affected by the Nuovo Pignone project, thus protecting the seafaring and tourism development prospects. All this resulted in a distorted and incomplete procedure which did not allow the Municipality to exercise its prerogatives and verify the sustainability of the project, forcing the Administration to defend the interests of the community through an appeal to the President of the Republic, but without hindering the investment. The Municipality has always demonstrated seriousness and transparency on this matter. The port is a resource for Calabria, but above all for the community of Corigliano-Rossano. And democracy imposes rules and sharing.”
The intervention of the opposition
Commit the Mayor to the iimmediate formal withdrawal of the appeal to be notified to the other parties, with the simultaneous friendly invitation to Nuova Pignone to come to the City and to this City Council to agree on every initiative aimed at recovering the time and creating the most favorable conditions to increase any possible impact on the economic and employment plan, for quantity and quality, for the territory. This is the textual, precise, clear and detailed request contained in the proposed resolution supported, motivated and jointly advanced by the Opposition Council Group during the last monothematic meeting held yesterday (Thursday 24 October) and rejected by the majority and by the Mayor Flavio Stasi.
There are no investigations to be carried out or interpretations to be provided – the opposition councilors explained in their speeches – because Baker Hughes, through its President Noccioni, has communicated with maximum transparency, unlike the Mayor of Corigliano-Rossano, the withdrawal accompanying it with clear and unequivocal words, reported in all the national media, last October 8th.
The uncertainty linked to the development times, slowed down by an appeal from the municipal administration of Corigliano-Rossano and, therefore, the lack of the temporal conditions necessary to carry out the project as initially conceived, including the concentration of all the activities in one the only area suitable to host them, i.e. the quay, are – explained Baker Hughes – at the basis of this difficult but unfortunately inevitable decision. The reference is bluntly only to the extraordinary appeal to the President of the Republic promoted by Mayor Flavio Stasi last June.
The reading given to that appeal – the opposition insisted – was that of an act of hostility on the part of the community and the territory. And above all the stated failure to request the suspension must have seemed ironic and mocking, as if to say: you can go ahead if you want. It does not happen – the councilors continued – not even in the Banana Republic that the Government asks a multinational to invest tens and tens of millions of euros, adding to the business risk the sword of Damocles of an appeal whose nature is unknown outcome! Absurd. Paradoxical. Tragicomic. Only Stasi could go this far!
On the other hand – underlined the minority – it cannot be overlooked that Baker Hughes is only a victim of the litigation. In fact, on Stasi’s initiative, the Municipality of Corigliano-Rossano appealed against other state bodies, namely the Port Authority and the Ministry of Infrastructure, accusing them of having carried out illegitimate acts and thus creating an institutional short circuit, and undermining the principle of loyal collaboration. Was it really necessary? Was it worth it?
Because all administrative disputes, beyond the easy slogan on respect for legality which is propagandistic and misleading for citizens, by their nature concern profiles of mere legitimacy of the acts being challenged, of alleged procedural and formal irregularities, in which the reasons are controversial, even more so in our case where the contrast is between public administrations, which exercise the right to interpret the rules in their application.
Faced with the thesis of the Municipality and its lawyer, there is in fact that of the Authority proceeding in the Services Conference with the support of the State Attorney’s Office. And on the other hand, no other institutional entity that participated raised objections, for example on the nature of the Conference which concerns everyone: is it possible that none of the other 10 participants noticed these alleged serious irregularities? Apart from the consideration that the contested provision comes out of a Services Conference and that the Municipality – even with the expression in the appeal – has expressed its dissent: and this is enough to satisfy the need to declare compliance with the rules.
On the other hand, as regards the repeatedly invoked (by Stasi) need for a new services conference to be convened expressly for the purposes of the single Zes authorisation, already granted on the original application for state concession but for the purpose of building an industrial complex – they underlined the representatives of the Opposition – it is legitimate to ask: are the actors of this second, possible services conference the same as the first one which has already taken place? If the answer is yes, what purpose should it be used for? Apart from the unnecessary duplication of a process? And isn’t all this in conflict with the needs for simplification and speed envisaged for the SEZs?
This is why – the opposition councilors confirmed – the point of observation must necessarily shift to the gap and disproportion between the dispute promoted and the declared unanimous favor of the investment; unanimous because the unions, the business associations, all the political parties on both sides, the Calabria Region, the Mise and naturally the Port System Authority and even the Mayor himself who wanted this to be put forward in the appeal
It is for this reason that – concluded the Opposition Council Group – any reopening of a minimal glimmer of discussion with Baker Hughes, on the continuation of the original investment started and with all the guarantees legitimately requested, depends, without ifs or buts, on the withdrawal of the appeal presented to the President of the Republic and by the contextual friendly convocation of the multinational to express the City’s willingness to welcome it, using every possibility to create the most favorable conditions to increase any possible impact on the economic and human resources level.