Will Golden Power be needed to save Alitalia?

9 April 20213 years ago babelfish

The Italian government should use Golden Power to save and relaunch national air transport with Alitalia. The intervention of Francesco D'Arrigo, director of the Italian Institute for Strategic Studies

The situation of national air transport, especially airlines, is now close to collapse.

Meanwhile, the debate on the usefulness of a national airline, full of rhetorical and instrumental arguments of an ideological matrix, does not take national interest into consideration.

The absence of a long-term strategic vision and the failure to enact government measures necessary to restore governance to the entire air transport sector and to face the worsening of the emergency caused by the Covid-2019 epidemic, are leading to the definitive annihilation of the historic AIitalia brand, amplifying the collapse of air traffic in our country. A real cataclysm that is about to inflict the coup de grace on the entire national air transport, a sector in crisis for some time but vital for the development and economic and social stability of the country.

With the country on its knees due to the Covid-2019 pandemic emergency, whose devastating effects on economic and social stability are currently incalculable, having a national airline that guarantees direct connections with the main intercontinental and European destinations, national territorial continuity for citizens and goods, it would represent a force of resilience and a guarantee of rapid recovery for our nation.

Alitalia, as a national airline, is the national air carrier that for over 70 years has proudly been flying our beloved tricolor and the flag of the Vatican State throughout the skies of the world during the voyages of the Holy Father, represents an asset for Italy. strategic also essential in order to continue to exercise its political, economic and cultural influence on the global geopolitical chessboard. A presence related to the ability to express our soft power, to export our culture (including the use of the Italian language, our customs, our local and food traditions) and all those factors that contribute to the projection abroad of the he overall image of Italy and its people, without forgetting the cultural value that certain products and industrial chains of absolute excellence also assume, thus strengthening the geo-economic power of Made in Italy.

European competition, on the other hand, believes that Alitalia's resistance has now reached its limit and everyone's expectation is the inevitable and definitive elimination of the historic Italian brand.

Considering the strategic importance of national air transport, it is essential that the Government and political forces take immediate coherent measures so that an Italian airline can regain its role as a national carrier of reference, including a social one, through a new industrial structure. state that brings it back in conditions of being able to regenerate its ability to defend its corporate interests, and national ones, regaining the rank of global carrier in order to support the recovery of the Italian socio-economic system.

The purposes for which an economic system like the Italian one needs to have a global flag company are directly linked to the functionality of the tourism economy and to the international development of its businesses, contributing in a decisive way:

the development of integrated logistic infrastructures (airports – railways – ports – highways);
the development of civil and military high-tech industrial sectors (scientific research, design, training, aircraft, engines, avionics, telecommunications, investment funds, of which a national carrier is a major sponsor and user);
to foreign policy and national security, in all its dimensions (civil, diplomatic, economic, military, health, humanitarian).

Speaking of national security, in the annual report to the Parliament of our Intelligence Services we read: "to the priority attention of the Government we must therefore bring those maneuvers to acquire national companies and to contrast the relaunch of our great Made in Italy brands ( see Alitalia), in various ways likely to cause a loss of know-how and competitiveness with repercussions on production capacity and employment prospects. The utmost attention must be directed above all to investigating the nature, matrix and purpose of foreign investors, in the light of multiple evidences according to which, the more shareholding and governance are attributable to foreign public entities, the higher the risk that the acquisitions are also aimed at purposes contrary to the national interest.

In 2019, the Government aimed to make the exercise of special powers on the control of foreign investments more incisive and effective, extending the scope of application, among other things, to those sectors that have acquired increasing importance in connection with advances technological and which are particularly exposed to global competition. In this sense, with the law 133/2019, converting the decree law 105/2019 (containing "urgent provisions regarding the perimeter of national cyber security and the regulation of special powers in sectors of strategic importance") it was decided to ensure immediate protection of areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnologies and the media, in line with the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2019/452.

Consistently, the Government's activity should pay particular attention to those phenomena of unfair competition to the detriment of our companies: dumping, improper acquisition of sensitive corporate information and know-how, actions of influence and disinformation / denigration campaigns have represented and continue to represent tools for altering ordinary market dynamics.

A production sector such as that of air transport must therefore be adequately protected, due to the capacity for innovation and the competitiveness it represents from an industrial, technological and socio-economic point of view – with respect to which the strong, sometimes muscular, action is evident " system ”of some European partners; the activities of foreign operators aimed at exclusively enhancing their own interests, to the detriment of national ones; possible changes in the ownership structure of national players in crisis and acquisition attempts by foreign investors, both sector and non, with the risk of theft of know-how and precious market shares; actions often aimed at influencing our decision-making centers and our production capacities.

The integrity and development of the current aeronautical infrastructure system, an indispensable connector in an increasingly competitive environment. they remain exposed to aggressive domestic market penetration strategies pursued by foreign players also through forms of interference aimed at "promoting" the supply of their products, services and technologies and lobbying / networking activities towards the EU. The transport and logistics sectors, strategic ganglia of commercial traffic, must be adequately supervised by the Government due to the need to preserve the role of economic driving force and driving force of applied research covered by the valuable national design, components and manufacturing chains, expressive of the excellence of Made in Italy. The protection of Italian air transport – a crucial infrastructure for national economic security – represents a priority objective with respect to the evident maneuvers potentially capable of altering its correct functioning or undermining its stability, exploiting pathologies and vulnerabilities of the sector ecosystem.

To protect the Italian aviation sector there would be an alternative: a direct and prolonged public intervention over time, creating a national carrier that sees the State as shareholder (even minority ones), supported by a widespread shareholder structure that could involve employees, large and small. private shareholders, and national air transport stakeholders (Regions, airports, companies, citizens), with incentives to invest in mobility and the future of their country.

Only through a wide-ranging strategic intervention by the Government can the external conditions of the economic environment for the attraction of capital be achieved, and internal conditions through a profound reform of the regulatory system, capable of making sustainable a national airline capable of implementing its own a global network that offers Italian citizens and companies adequate internal connections and direct long-haul flights to all the main world destinations, essential for the competitiveness of the Country – System.

The national plan of recovery and resilience in the acronym (PNRR) in addition to "recovery" and "resilience" is implicit a third R, that of the "Renaissance" of Italy through the reforms necessary to increase efficiency, effectiveness and the productivity of some strategic sectors for the country's economic and social system, of which air transport is a vital asset for strengthening economic recovery, accelerating growth potential, allowing for a more equitable and inclusive development of our territory.

Faced with this emergency scenario, the commitment of the Institutions to oversee the national economy – should be aimed at guaranteeing the inflow of capital into our production fabric, supporting Italian companies and preserving industrial supply chains, starting with those operating in sectors of strategic importance. This protection action can be carried out according to the criteria provided for by the legislation on the so-called Golden Power (law 56/2012) which should be considered a backbone in the safeguard procedure for relaunching a flag company and the entire air transport sector.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/golden-power-alitalia/ on Fri, 09 Apr 2021 05:37:13 +0000.