06.06.2017, Italy.
More than 500 inhabitants of the Italian city of Melendugno took to the streets on June 5, protesting against continuing the construction of the gas pipeline from Azerbaijan, the Repubblica, an Italian resource, reports on its website.
The protest in the town with a population of about 10 thousand people took place, despite police attempts to break up the protest. “No TAP”, “No Carbone di Brindisi”, and other civic and environmental organizations of Naples and Italy were among the protesters. The reason for the protests is the ongoing construction of the Trans-Adriatic Gas Pipeline (TAP) from the Azerbaijani Shah-Deniz field to Europe, which is planned to launch in 2019. Italian citizens who oppose this construction are afraid of destroying the environment of their region and the coastal cities near which the gas pipeline will pass losing their reputation as resorts. The citizens’ discontent is shared by the regional authorities of these cities. But the central authorities of the country, the leadership of the EU and the construction consortium ignore the protests of residents of coastal cities.
Under the influence of the US, the EU insists on reducing the share of Russian gas in the total volume purchased by Europe. As part of this concept of replacing Russian gas, the EU adopts discriminatory legislation against Russia, and it lobbies the construction of alternative gas pipelines in place of the Russian ones. The TAP is among them. Its construction began in 2015. The estimated capacity of the gas pipeline will be 10 billion cubic meters per year, with an expansion of up to 20 billion cubic meters.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
