Prodi Proposes Merger of Koper and Trieste Ports
Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi suggested after Monday's talks with Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa that in order to make the Northern Adriatic more competitive, the Koper and the Trieste ports should merge into one port and even include the Croatian port of Rijeka.
This is the only way that the ports of the Northern Adriatic could compete with those of the North Sea, Prodi believes. "We should create a single port in the Gulf of Trieste; Trieste and Koper are one port on two shores," the Italian prime minister said. By also including the Rijeka port an important economic zone would be created in the Northern Adriatic, Prodi stressed. "We need to work together", he moreover urged, saying it was understandable that Central European countries preferred to cooperate with the remoter North Sea ports as those operated as one.
Prodi and Jansa meanwhile agreed that such a project also required a modernisation of the supporting infrastructure.
Jansa pointed out that EU enlargement had been accompanied in the region by substantial geostrategic changes, while the infrastructure continued to date back to the times of the "iron curtain". "We will try to change that through joint projects," Jansa announced.
The pair pointed above all to road and rail infrastructure, especially the 5th trans-European transport corridor, while Prodi also highlighted the electrical connections between the two countries.
According to Prodi, Slovenia and Italy need a new overhead power line. The project however still has not been drawn up, despite the fact that it would need to be put forward by the end of this year in order to make it eligible for European funding, Prodi said. According to the Italian prime minister, this would create an important energy market in the region, preferably also with the inclusion of Austria.
Jansa and Prodi meanwhile praised economic cooperation between the two countries. Italy is Slovenia's second most important trade partner. Total trade exceeded EUR 5.5bn last year, when it grew by 15%, and is also becoming ever more balanced. Prodi said that two countries should follow along these lines, but also stressed that there was still a lot of room for improvement in the area of direct investment.
The pair also touched on the proposed liquefied natural gas terminals in the Gulf of Trieste, with Prodi assuring Jansa that Slovenia would be regularly briefed on all Italian projects and studies connected to these plans. Prodi said Italy needed these terminals, "this however needs to be done in a way assuaging Slovenian concerns". "This can only be achieved through transparent planning," he added.
Jansa meanwhile said that Slovenia understood Italy's energy concerns as it was in a similar situation, he added however that in searching for solutions one also needed to observe environmental demands.
The Slovenian side "is at present satisfied with the ongoing form of cooperation" in this field and is waiting for the results of studies that are still underway, so Jansa. "We will surely reach a solution that will meet energy as well as environmental demands," Jansa believes.
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