The government is having the oil and cement lobbies rewrite environmental laws

A ministerial commission will be officially established to review the Environmental Code, but those who will sit on its benches will be people directly connected to sectors that will be affected by that regulatory change.The interministerial decree of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security and the Dicastery for Institutional Reforms - led respectively by Gilberto Pichetto Fratin and Elisabetta Casellati - which creates the commission was published last November 7.And, among the names that will compose it, there are many professionals linked to the world of construction companies and the sector ofOil&Gas.For this reason, the spokesperson for Green Europe and Avs MP Angelo Bonelli speaks of a "coup against the environment", announcing aparliamentary question with which he will ask the government according to which parameters the members of the commission were chosen.Among other things, it will have to deal with very delicate issues, such as changes to the principles and skills underlying processes relating to the Environmental Impact Assessment, the Strategic Impact Assessment and the Integrated Environmental Authorisation, as well as the protection of hydrogeological risk, waste management and the protection of waters from pollution.

Specifically, the interministerial decree establishes that the draft delegated law be completed by 31 January 2024 and the implementing schemes of the Legislative Decree by 31 December 2024.For this purpose, approximately 50 components of the commission, which will be chaired by the administrative law expert and teacher Eugenio Picozza and co-chaired by Pasquale Fimiani, Deputy Attorney General at the Court of Cassation) with the functions of Co-President.However, among the members, as Bonelli points out, there are both politicians who are candidates on the lists of Forza Italia And Alloy then non-elected results such as Urania Papatheu and Vincenzo Pepe, but also Maria Adele Prosperoni, environmental and energy manager of Confcooperative, Elisabetta Gardini and Teodora Marrocco of the Gianni & Origoni law firm, who worked respectively with Eni And Snam, and Angelo Lalli of the Piselli & Parteners studio, which has a large number of clients in the Oil & Gas sector.There are also Paolo Battiato and Pier Giorgio Falvo, at the top of two engineering companies in the city of Catania and that of Cosenza, Stefano Mazzoni, who worked as Senior Operation Geologist for Eni spa Natural Resources, as well as Pasquale Frisina, who was the lawyer of Caltagirone group for various reasons.Then there is Aristide Police who, as his CV on the Luiss portal states, “has been on the Panel of lawyers of the G.S.E. since October 2011.Energy Services Manager S.p.a.with the task of assisting the Company in litigation regarding procedures relating to the admission to the benefits and incentives provided by the Energy Bill in favor of renewable energy production plants for the various regulatory periods" and "since 2013 it has been in Panel of Enel S.p.a. lawyers with the task of assisting the Company in litigation relating to activities instrumental to the production and distribution plants of electricity, also working with the subsidiaries Enel Servizi and Enel Distribuzione".

Commenting on the inter-ministerial decree Pichetto Fratin and Casellati, Angelo Bonelli has declared that, in his opinion, the government's objective is to «dismantle environmental legislation and make it softer and closer to interests of builders and oil companies».«A commission of experts is appointed, a significant part of which works in law firms that have had and still have contacts with large construction companies and energy companies – continues the deputy -.There are unelected candidates from the League and Forza Italia who are placed on the expert commission and they are there owners of companies that deal with waste.Pichetto will have to come to the courtroom and explain this shame».For Bonelli, in fact, this choice «relieves questions on the neutrality and independence of this team tasked with rewriting the environmental regulations fundamental for the future of our country."Also supporting Avs' action are the Democratic Party and M5S, who ask in unison that Minister Pichetto Fratin report to Parliament.

[by Stefano Baudino]