Despite the fact that the collapsed bridge in Italy's Genoa was located along the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), which is supervised by the European Union, ensuring the bridge's safety was always within the responsibilities of the national authorities, European Commission spokesman Christian Spahr said at a briefing on Thursday, hitting back at Rome's accusations.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th August, 2018) Despite the fact that the collapsed bridge in Italy's Genoa was located along the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), which is supervised by the European Union, ensuring the bridge's safety was always within the responsibilities of the national authorities, European Commission spokesman Christian Spahr said at a briefing on Thursday, hitting back at Rome's accusations.
On Tuesday, Italian Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini blamed EU budget constraints for the tragedy in Genoa, where a bridge collapsed earlier this week, leaving nearly 40 people dead.
"Well, indeed, the bridge is located on this TEN-T network. The motorway between Savona and Genoa is part of that network, which means that its infrastructure needs to fulfill specific requirements that are defined in Article 1839 of the TEN-T Regulation 1315/2013. We can recite it to you separately as well. 'The safety of the motorway needs to be assured, monitored and where necessary improved in accordance with the procedure provided by the EU directive on road infrastructure safety management. Carrying out these procedures is the responsibility of national authorities,'" Spahr indicated.
The bridge collapsed during a storm on Tuesday at about 11 a.m. local time (09:00 GMT). A section of the bridge fell from a height of 100 meters (328 feet) on warehouses, railway tracks and a river. The Italian government has since imposed a year-long state of emergency in the Liguria region, where the bridge is located, and allocated 5 million Euros (some $5.7 million) to manage the consequences of the incident.
