The subsidies for the modal shift from road to ship risk being lower than the cost increase on maritime transport related to the taxation on the latter imposed by the European Commission through the emissions trading system.
This is supported by a note from Aitras – Comitato Trasportatori Siciliani: “By December 2025, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport will conclude, with the payment of the contribution to the beneficiary companies, the investigation of the Sea Modal Shift /2023 – /2024, thus for the first year, disbursing sums equal to 43 million euros. From an estimate, this will correspond to about 80/90 euros for a semi-trailer on the Palermo – Genoa route, well below what the ETS has impacted on the same route and for the same vehicle, which is instead about 116 euros”.
A paradox according to the Sicilian hauliers: “In the end, in this European environmental short circuit, the hauliers have lost about 30/40 euros per shipped vehicle. It will be worse in the next years of Sea Modal Shift since for the periods /2025 – /2026 and /2027 the funds will drop to 21.5 million per year, while for 2027 there is currently no financial coverage, despite being authorized by the EU”.
Hence the request to recover the gap between the ETS and the former marebonus through the revenue from the new tax: “Last week there was a discussion at the MIT on the use of funds from the ETS and the national trade associations have put forward the request to use them for the purchase of ecological vehicles by haulage companies, but we of the Comitato Trasportatori Siciliani do not agree and demand that that money goes back into the coffers of those who paid it, namely the hauliers who used combined road-sea transport and who are the most penalized. On this front, we will not retreat one centimeter and we will be on alert to verify the use of these funds by the Government, deploying forms of protest if our requests are not accepted”.
