(ANSA) - A project meant to protect Venice from sinking stirred up fresh furore in Venice on Monday, as environmentalists announced further action at the European Union.
A group of environmental and heritage groups fighting the two-year-old Moses project (MOSE in Italian) said they had sent new evidence to the European Commission, which is already examining an appeal filed against the plan.
The World Wide Fund for Nature, the heritage protection society Italia Nostra, the Italian League for the Protection of Birds (LIPU) and the Alex Langer Eco-Institute have sent a report to the Commission detailing a series of alleged violations of EU environmental law.
"Venice's destiny is inextricably linked to that of the lagoon," said LIPU conservation spokesman Claudio Celado. "It is a fragile site of high ecological value. The methods being used are causing irreversible damage to habitats and species that are protected by European directives."
The Alex Langer institute's director, Michele Boato, suggested it was "now or never". "Work on the MOSE project is still in the preliminary stage so it is not yet too late to intervene, converting the construction already completed to other purposes," he said.
"Once the coffer-dam and bulkhead have been completed, the situation will be irreversible."
The Moses project comprises 79 barriers, designed to rise from the seabed to block the lagoon from the Adriatic Sea when high tides are forecast. After 30 years of debate and testing, it was inaugurated by Premier Silvio Berlusconi in May 2003, although work is still in the preliminary stages.
The centre-right government in Rome has adopted MOSE as one of the jewels in its nationwide crown of major infrastructural projects but it has long been a source of contention within Venice.
It is opposed by environmentalists, conservation groups and a large number of citizens, angry over the costs involved and concerned at the environmental impact. They say the cash - some 3.4 billion euros - could be put towards more effective, cheaper and less damaging schemes.
Despite a series of legal challenges and widely covered demonstrations, a ruling last year by the regional administrative court gave definitive clearance for the project's go-ahead.
Combined with positive assessments from the Venice Water Authority, the Commission to Safeguard Venice, several teams of international experts and the municipal council's own implacable support for the scheme, environmentalists appeared to be fighting a losing battle.
However, municipal elections in April gave a new lease of life to their campaign, when Massimo Cacciari was elected mayor. He had made opposition to the project a key plank in his electoral platform and eventually scored a narrow run-off victory against another centre-left candidate in favour of the plan.
Cacciari, who meets with an inter-ministerial committee on Wednesday, has repeatedly stressed that only the infrastructures ministry and the Veneto regional government have the final say on halting the plan. Nevertheless, he has vowed to tackle the issue with Infrastructures Minister Pietro Lunardi when he meets him later this week.
"I have no intention of getting involved in a quarrel," he told reporters on Saturday. "I will ask for a peaceful, fair and well-considered debate on the Moses project and possible alternatives - in other words, those that have not enjoyed the 1,500 billion euros' financing poured into MOSE."
As well as potential environmental problems, Cacciari cited the project's cost and financing methods as strong objections. But despite Cacciari's complaints, Lunardi last week warned that there was no alternative to the MOSE project, while Veneto Governor Giancarlo Galan said Venice "could suffer the fate of New Orleans" if the project did not go ahead.
He claimed that it offered "the only hope of making Venice and its lagoon safe for good."
Meanwhile, the campaign fighting the project has threatened to take Venice's chief prosecutor Ennio Fortuna to the judiciary's self-governing body, the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM), over recent remarks he made about MOSE. The campaign claims Fortuna's comments could influence two separate inquiries that are examining potential financing problems and alleged administrative infractions.
"It's outrageous that Fortuna continues telling the press that MOSE is technically fine and a perfectly legal project," said Boato. "His comments could bias prosecutors and the court of auditors, who are currently investigating the plan [...] We will be taking the matter up with the CSM."
As well as being a biblical reference to Moses' parting of the seas, MOSE is an acronym for Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico (experimental electro mechanical module), a prototype that was built to test how the barriers would operate.
The project's completion date has been put at 2011.
