The minister at the inauguration of ‘Genoa Shipping Week’: “Greater simplification is needed”
Genoa – The Italian Minister for Sea Policies, Nello Musumeci, promised a firm commitment to simplify the country’s “blue economy,” denouncing excessive bureaucracy and the “fear of the Public Prosecutor’s Office” which, in his opinion, slow down development.
Speaking via video link at the inauguration of the ‘Genoa Shipping Week’, Musumeci stated: “I will not make promises, but I commit to simplifying the blue economy, one of the issues that does not only concern the sea economy is debureaucratization”.
The Minister described Italy as a “Republic built on bureaucracy, where everything is left to managers and officials who have families, are afraid of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, are afraid of signing well beyond what is physiological”.
According to Musumeci, bureaucracy heavily affects a sector like the blue economy, which must face “ruthless and unscrupulous competition from countries near the Mediterranean”. He criticized the slowness of innovative processes in Italy and the lack of dialogue between the four or five public entities that intervene on sea-related issues. “Sea policy has never been central in past years,” he added, also highlighting the difficulties due to coordination with eleven colleagues and the impact of a “fundamentalist environmentalism” which, in his opinion, risks leading to “industrial desertification”.
Musumeci outlined the ongoing initiatives to speed up processes, including the action of the Interministerial Committee for Sea Policies (Cipom), the law on underwater activities already approved by the Senate and under discussion in the Chamber, and the planned establishment of an ad hoc agency.
A critical point highlighted by the Minister is that of port dredging. “Dredging is the torment of Port Authorities,” he stated, defining it “exasperating” that it takes three years to carry one out. He concluded his speech by reiterating his political commitment to debureaucratization, also in view of the end of his mandate. “My commitment is sincere also because in two years, with the end of this legislature, my political experience will also end”.
