Translated automatically by AI from the Italian original.
PALERMO / POLITICS & TRANSPORT – A roving technical meeting designed to gather the islands’ communities’ concerns directly on the ground and to jointly plan the future of maritime links. This is the main outcome of today’s meeting at Palazzo d’Orléans between the eight mayors of Sicily’s 14 minor islands, the regional minister for infrastructure Alessandro Aricò and the head of the president’s office for the Sicilian Region, Salvatore Sammartano.
The body will meet monthly, taking turns to visit each of Sicily’s islands: its official debut is already set for 30 November at Palazzo d’Orléans. The strategic goal is to collect suggestions, observations and operational assessments ahead of the new tender for links to and from the islands, expected next year and which the regional administration intends to entrust to Invitalia.
Fares unchanged on regional routes and funds to offset state increases
During today’s discussion, the mayors expressed appreciation for the action taken by the government led by Renato Schifani, which so far has avoided any fare increase on all regional maritime routes despite inflation and rising fuel costs.
At the same time, Aricò outlined his intention to ask the Sicilian Regional Assembly to allocate additional financial resources to offset the cost increases recorded on routes managed by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.
Aricò: “Socio-economic study for the transport plan and a fund for ports”
On the sidelines of the summit, the regional minister for infrastructure confirmed the commitments made by the executive to the island administrations:
“I share the requests made by the mayors and I reiterate that regional routes will not see any increase. We will work on a socio-economic study to draw up the islands’ transport plan. In addition, the government will set up a fund for the ordinary maintenance of port facilities, with resources to be managed directly by the municipal administrations. With these further measures we confirm the Schifani government’s closeness to the island communities,” Aricò said.
