The Council of State of Italy on Monday gave permission for the construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), thus rejecting the official objections of the South Italian region of Apulia, where in recent weeks numerous demonstrations of protest have been held against this ambitious project.

According to RIA Novosti, the report on the results of the meeting of the Council of State indicates that the appeals of the authorities of Melendugno and the region of Apulia, which expressed serious doubts about the compliance of the TAP project with the current standards of environmental legislation, were rejected.

By its decision, the Council of State recognized the conclusions of the special commission that had previously analyzed all issues regarding the environmental protection in the construction of the TAP, and approved the choice of a place in the zone of the seaside town of Meledugno, where the gas pipe should enter the Italian land.

The decision of the Council of State, which supervises administrative and legal issues related to the protection of the rule of law in the area of governance, allows not to take into account the negative opinion of local authorities and in fact gives green light to the construction of the TAP, according to which Azerbaijani gas is supposed to be transported to Italy.

Last Thursday, near the recently fenced construction site in Meludugno, a demonstration of protest was held against the construction of the gas pipeline, in which the mayors of 13 local cities took part.

The 520 km TAP route passes through Greece, Albania, the Adriatic Sea and Italy. The TAP should become part of the so-called “Southern Gas Corridor” (SGC), continuing the chain from the South Caucasus Gas Pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum) and the Transanatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP), passing through Turkey.

At the initial stage, the main resource for SGC is the gas, which will be extracted in the second phase of the development of the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field.

source Minval.az