Fourth call for tenders for territorial continuity between Sardinia and the smaller islands of La Maddalena and San Pietro was unsuccessful , despite the increase in funds made available to companies.

The Region raises the white flag and asks for a solution "at a national level" , because in acting on this mechanism "there are dynamics on which the Sardinia Region can have little influence".

Since 2022, "as many as 4 tenders have gone unsold, demonstrating the difficult and delicate period that the maritime market has been going through in recent years", says Transport Councillor Barbara Manca , assuring that the service, expiring on 31 December 2024, "will obviously be guaranteed in any case" and that "all possible hypotheses are already being evaluated".

"The outcome that occurred was not a remote hypothesis given the precedents - continues Manca - but we certainly hoped for greater interest from the carriers after the effort made in recent months to create a "balanced" tender that would allow, on the one hand, compliance with the principles set by the Transport Regulation Authority consistent with community regulation, in particular compliance with the rules of transparency and non-discrimination and, on the other, fair remuneration for the operators involved".

The resources of the auction base amounted to over 26 million per year . « The State – Manca underlines – invests annually in the routes for continuity between Sardinia and the Peninsula about 14.5 million , a figure much lower than what we use as a Region to guarantee continuity with the smaller islands».

A huge disproportion, which shows that it is not enough to put more money on the table or to spread the call also in foreign markets. The outcome remains negative, "demonstrating - continues the councilor - that the mechanism is also affected by dynamics on which the Region can have little influence ".

According to Manca, it is necessary to " start a discussion with Tuscany, Lazio, Sicily and Campania, other regions that are facing the same problem, to find shared solutions on a national scale that allow us to break the stalemate and ensure connections without resorting to emergency procedures". The first step in this direction "will be to involve the Transport Regulatory Authority, in order to evaluate the critical issues that occurred in the failed tender procedures and the possible formulas to adopt to address them".