Caspian Report - Issue: 07 - Spring 2014
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
View of the old<br />
town Ostuni,<br />
Puglia, Italy.<br />
Davide Tabarelli<br />
50<br />
ers, some 200 billion cubic meters per<br />
year (bcm/y) of additional gas up to<br />
2030. Russia will not be able to cover<br />
the full scope of this demand, and<br />
there will be plenty of room left for<br />
gas supplies through South Stream,<br />
the other gigantic gas line that will<br />
bring Siberian gas to Europe through<br />
the so-called northern corridor.<br />
Thus, we should ask ourselves why<br />
this project is facing such a fierce opposition<br />
from the South of Italy. The<br />
answer is complex, with its roots<br />
reaching back centuries into the history<br />
of the poorest part of the country,<br />
where economic development,<br />
imposed from central governments<br />
with controversial results, has never<br />
been really achieved. Lagging behind<br />
the rest of the EU, the south of Italy<br />
is one of the weakest parts of the EU,<br />
with average levels of unemployment<br />
close to 20%, reaching peaks of 40%<br />
among the youngest. Emigration from<br />
has been a constant feature of the<br />
past century and has re-emerged as a<br />
major trend with the latest economic<br />
crisis forcing thousands of people<br />
to look for jobs abroad. Experience<br />
teaches us that as a territory develops,<br />
its inhabitants become increasingly<br />
familiar with industrial infrastructures,<br />
and thus it is more likely that<br />
the realisation of a new project will<br />
succeed. What has often happened<br />
in the past is that investors in the<br />
southern Italian regions anticipated<br />
a welcome from local authorities and<br />
people, since they thought they were<br />
bringing new opportunities for local<br />
development.<br />
But in the last few years, the opposite<br />
has happened. A very strong negative<br />
perception of any kind of industry<br />
grew in precisely those poor areas<br />
where industrial development could<br />
have helped most. This is a common<br />
problem all over Italy, where the<br />
media tends to focus on the negative<br />
impacts connected to pollution,<br />
deaths, and contamination. Due to<br />
this negative campaigning, factories,<br />
or any kind of investment, are seen as<br />
bringing harmful changes. As a consequence,<br />
the positive impacts on employment<br />
and economic development<br />
are ignored.<br />
Apulia Region has a complex relationship<br />
with industrial infrastructures,
Change language