Controversy erupts following the hearing of jurists and constitutional experts before the Regional Council's Territorial Government and Productive Activities Committees on the proposed popular initiative law Pratobello 24.
The instigator of the proposal against energy speculation related to renewable energy projects on the island was the Committee promoting it. The day after the meeting, which they were not allowed to attend, they issued a harsh statement, which reads: "Despite this Committee formally requesting to participate as an auditor, no response has been received from the Committee Presidents. Ignoring our request reveals the true intentions of those who helped draft the proposal and submit it for signature by hundreds of thousands of Sardinians. It is definitively clear," the promoters add, "that this regional council and this majority have no intention of actively engaging with civic movements and are facing yet another regulatory disaster in this legislature."
Regarding the contributions of the jurists, the Committee writes, "we note yet another subservience to certain principles that in recent years have dominated state and Constitutional Court energy decisions, betraying other European unity principles and the very mandate of Parliament. The maximum diffusion of plants is not the only thing Europe demands of us, and a dignified ruling class, including jurists, would have the duty to point out, even to the Constitutional Court, that European directives also require protections for the landscape, cultural heritage, and biodiversity, as well as the involvement and social acceptance of local communities."
The Pratobello proponents also note that "the principle of maximum deployment of renewable energy plants and the Region's loyal cooperation with the State are to be considered fulfilled with the achievement of the albeit exaggerated 6.2 GW target endorsed by Alessandra Todde, based on the ill-fated Pichetto Fratin Decree . The Pratobello 24 proposal is a matter of territorial governance and the will of a people who no longer accept being ignored . It can inspire a law on suitable surfaces capable of respecting the priorities dictated by European Directives and Article 5 of the Parliamentary Delegated Law, which have thus far been systematically betrayed by Italian governments."
"We therefore believe," the Committee concludes in its statement, "that the Pratobello 24 project largely respects the balances and safeguards dictated by European Union law and the Constitution , without, however, bowing to the obsession with maximum deployment of power plants, which serves the usual Italian thievery and speculative finance. We urge the Regional Council and Executive Committee to put an end to the regulatory snafus that have thus far made them ridiculous , and to approve the Pratobello 24 project, along with a law on suitable surfaces and a participatory Energy Plan that reflect its autonomist, egalitarian, and anti-speculative spirit."
(Unioneonline)