Competitiveness and development: Italy’s infrastructure and transportation system

This roundtable focused on infrastructural problems hindering Italy’s competitiveness: to resolve them would mean allowing Italy to play a primary role – a hub – both for intra-European relations and for relations between Europe and other Mediterranean countries. Despite recent important interventions by the Italian government, many critical questions remain: directions to be taken by those in power; regulatory uncertainties; complexities in getting projects approved; lack of logistical development; lack of public resources; role of private operators and their relation to public organisms; clear rules on public-private partnership in Europe; consensus in local and national public opinion.