The Trieste regasification plant “is the type of infrastructure that is absolutely essential to Italy’s energy security”. The point was explained by Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi during the press conference at the end of the fourth meeting of the Italian-Slovenian Ministerial Coordination Committee, in Brdo. Also taking part were the Environment Minister, Corrado Clini; the Deputy Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Mario Ciaccia; and the Under-Secretaries for Economic Development, Massimo Vari, and Education, Marco Rossi Doria.
As Terzi added, “This issue deserves to be discussed, evaluated and if possible agreed with neighbouring countries, which could obtain clear advantages from more cost-effective solutions than those which are purely national in scope”.
Trilateral meeting at year-end
During the meeting, Environment Minister Corrado Clini proposed to his Slovenian colleagues that a trilateral meeting should be held on energy and environmental policies in the upper Adriatic, extended to include Croatia. The proposal met with agreement from the others present. The meeting, which Italy suggests could take place at the end of 2012 or in early 2013, would also address, in detail, certain single issues that have been a source of contention for the countries concerned. These include the Zaule regasification plant, in the port of Trieste, and the offshore plant.
In Clini’s view, “the role of natural gas in the Italian economy, in that of Slovenia and in the economy of Croatia, now an EU member country, is highly important. Not least, to ensure that we meet our environment obligations, especially the second stage of the Kyoto Protocol, starting next year, and our commitments in light of the Doha conference on climate change in December”.
