News recently surfaced of the unilateral rescheduling of Aeroitalia's evening flight between Fiumicino and Alghero, apparently due to the impact of jet fuel costs on the airline's accounts, despite the full compliance with the Ministerial Decree.

Sardinian businesses are suffering from rising freight and energy costs. Territorial continuity is (or at least should be) the authentic expression of the principles of equality and cohesion. It represents the true unity of the country in its regional geographic context, as well as the unity of Italy as a country, both insular and peninsular, within the European Union.

Continuity, therefore, as the concrete ability to guarantee citizens living in geographically isolated or disadvantaged areas, specifically islands, the same mobility as those living on the mainland or, in any case, in major infrastructure hubs. This is a genuine guarantee of constitutional importance for the protection and safeguarding of social and economic cohesion.

Living on an island, especially Sardinia in Italy, means daily confronting natural barriers that inevitably impact the economy and society, resulting in disadvantage. It is true that insularity has been recognized in the Italian Constitution (Article 119), with the aim, among other things, of committing the state to promote the measures necessary to eliminate the disadvantages resulting from this condition. The current economic situation, the impact of ongoing conflicts, with all their tangible consequences on daily life and shopping carts, have highlighted another fact that can no longer be ignored: that even the imposition of public service obligations, useful for compensating for the shortcomings of free market laws, which, by themselves, cannot guarantee affordable, regularly scheduled flights or ferries to less profitable routes, is insufficient.

While European Union rules on free competition and state aid limit national governments' freedom to freely finance routes, they also ensure fair and transparent conditions for businesses. Ultimately, they often lead to bureaucratic deadlock, to the detriment of citizens. Arguably (or so it seems) the very fact that tenders are awarded to airlines offering the most attractive prices should never translate, in accordance with the principle of equality and cohesion, into a reduction in flight frequency, schedules, and reliability.

Local businesses, and thus the entire economic sector of a given regional territory, such as Sardinia, suffer from transportation costs (for both raw materials and finished products) that are much higher than those of their mainland competitors. In the long run, a precarious or overly expensive transportation system also poses a barrier to tourism (which shouldn't be limited to luxury goods, so to speak), perhaps limiting it to peak seasons. But how could those who must travel for medical treatment or study be guaranteed the right to healthcare and education on equal terms with their fellow citizens of the mainland? If the cost of a ticket becomes prohibitive, this right itself would automatically be compromised, with every imaginable consequence in terms of depopulation.
We should ask the right question and try to offer a satisfactory or plausible answer: why does the practical implementation of the principles of territorial continuity continue to present serious challenges, undermining the principles of equality, cohesion, and insularity? Perhaps stating it differently and even more clearly, it would be important first to clarify one point: that "territorial continuity" should not be perceived externally as a "privilege" or as a welfare subsidy granted to those living on islands, almost translating into a burden at the national level. Rather, it represents an investment in the strictest sense of democracy, understood in the full and substantial sense of the term.

At present, all things considered, including fuel prices and international instability, it would be necessary, not merely useful, to establish a sort of permanent and structural national fund at the national level that could finally give concrete formal implementation to the constitutional principle of insularity, recognizing and substantiating it in its entirety. By "bridging" the distances between the different Italian territories, peoples are united, equal opportunities are offered to all national businesses, and above all, the dignity of every citizen is guaranteed, regardless of where they were born or have chosen to live.

Giuseppina Di Salvatore – Lawyer, Nuoro

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