The consortium that manages the TAP project is looking for ways to ensure compliance with the agreed arrangements to build the Trans Adriatic Pipeline pipeline in Italy without tensions.

Former Prime Minister of Britain, Tony Blair, who is expected to meet Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini in Rome, has been “recruited” to present the positive effects the TAP will have on the Italian economy after it becomes operable.

According to plans so far, the TAP pipeline will approach the Italian coast near Puglia. The Guardian newspaper reported that Tony Blair’s office has not made any announcement to release more information. The British politician, through the organization he has founded, the Institute for Global Change, has opposed the rhetoric adopted and used by the coalition government in Italy.

The 5 Star Movement and the Northern League have expressed different views on the feasibility and necessity of the TAP pipeline. In July, Matteo Salvini said he would support the project, arguing that the project would help reduce the gas price in Italy and that the South of the country specifically needs this kind of infrastructure.

But Barbara Lezzi, the Minister responsible for the Italian south, said for herself that “we really need infrastructure: we need roads, schools and train stations”, suggesting that specifically, the TAP is a wasteful and even harmful project.

Luigi Di Maio, the head of the 5-Star Movement and Deputy Prime Minister, noted that “the party has not changed its mind about the construction of the TAP pipeline.”

Serious environmental impacts in the area where the TAP pipeline will end up in Italy such as groundwater contamination and marine pollution and the fact that endangered species will be threatened by the destruction of their ecosystem are the arguments put forward by those opposed to the construction of the project.

Source: Nefeli Tzanetakou/balkaneu