"Let the right to mobility of Sardinians be guaranteed": these are the words of the President of the Sardinia Region, Alessandra Todde, at the end of the meeting held in Brussels only a few days ago with the European Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas. The issue, therefore, continues to be raised in all its relevance.
If with the approval of the well-known Constitutional Reform of 2022, the principle of insularity seemed to have assumed, and has assumed, at least on paper, a renewed relevance, contributing to delineate an unprecedented perimeter of possible public intervention in the matter of territorial continuity, and always in awareness of the Italian geographical particularity, however, in reality, the "mobility" problem would seem to continue to persist. There exist, and persist, large economic disparities, and consequently also social and territorial ones, between the various Member States of the European Union, and despite being the object of constant attention by the European institutions, to date they seem not to have found valid compensatory solutions. And it would probably be of little use to question the reasons, given and considered the legislation currently in force on the subject which, with good likelihood, should be updated according to the specific needs of the individual territories involved. Even more so when, the same article 174 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, aims precisely to "promote a harmonious development of the Union as a whole" in order to "achieve the strengthening of its economic, social and territorial cohesion". And even more so when, although the European Union sets itself the fundamental objective of reducing the disparity between the levels of development of the various Regions involved in order to promote the so-called economic-social rebalancing of specific territories of its large structure such as the islands, even today, it does not seem to have succeeded in translating the purpose into practical action, at least with regard to specific Island Regions such as Sardinia, completely peculiar in its conformation and its allocation.
First of all, because even if the free movement of European citizens within the territories of the Member States of the European Union is one of the fundamental freedoms recognized and guaranteed by the Treaties in Articles 3, paragraph 2, and 21 of the TFEU and, at national level, by Article 16 of the Constitutional Charter, however, Article 107 of the aforementioned Treaty prohibits States from granting companies, with public resources, aid that could in any way alter the conditions of competition in the reference market. Then, because, precisely by virtue of that recognized principle of insularity, the same Government, without incurring the violation of the prohibition referred to in the aforementioned Article 107 of the Treaty, could, if anything, contribute in a perhaps more intense manner to the implementation and protection of the right to mobility for the islands. Last but not least, because the need to fill the socio-economic disadvantage deriving from the condition of insularity is an essential requirement to guarantee a fundamental social right, that of mobility. In this sense, the meeting held in Brussels between the President of the Sardinia Region Alessandra Todde and the European Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas, could represent an important opportunity to start a constant combined path aimed at reconsidering the consistency, potential and limits existing in the context of the relations between the Italian State and the European Union with a view to their modelling, if one may say so, suitable to promote maximum compatibility between the discipline on the protection of competition and State aid, and the full and effective implementation of a system of connections between islands and the so-called peripheral areas and the Country. The implementation of the principle of island cohesion is a fundamental objective for an Island that wants and can fully express all its potential.
Giuseppina Di Salvatore – Lawyer, Nuoro
