Oil&nonOil interviews Giuseppe Sperduto, President of Faib Confesercenti, who speaks on issues relevant to the sector. In a meeting with the other trade associations in the sector, a number of issues were raised with Minister Urso and Minister Pichetto Fratin: Confesercenti is waiting for a sector table that can help them start the process of normalising the contracts they sign with oil companies. Contracts that in the private sector are not applied in the correct way and do not go through the trade associations. The rule that obliges them to go through the associations is without penalty and private individuals (who represent 50 per cent of the network) often evade this, creating contractual illegality.
Recently the 60th anniversary of Faib Confesercenti was celebrated with an event that was well attended. It was there that it was reiterated how for 60 years they have been demanding the recognition of a legal figure and a sector register. This demand has always been passed off as a desire to expropriate the equipment owned by the companies, but, Sperduto emphasised, the intention is to make the operators grow. Some companies left the Italian market because they were not receiving the right remuneration, according to them, and because of the high costs. The advent of liberalisation has brought new entrepreneurs into the sector.
According to Sperduto, many of them are efficient, but what is currently causing concern is malfeasance. In this regard, Confesercenti is calling on Minister Matteo Salvini to put procedures in place and to bring forward, as Minister Urso is already doing, a sectoral table with respect to motorways that supply fuel.
«The future cannot be stopped» Sperduto declares, «ecology is fundamental to the lives of everyone indiscriminately, and one cannot take refuge in a right based on work by creating barricades. It has already been done in the not too distant past when we switched from old fuels to better ones: it is a compulsory step but it must be accompanied». Rather than creating difficulties in large cities in placing electric recharging stations, which despite the fact that they are installed will be insufficient, Sperduto reiterates how it would be better to use fuel stations that are close to being refurbished and to plan for the future an organisation of new fuel stations, where environmentally friendly fuels cannot be dispensed with, with the right location and the right development. In these contexts, the space for filling stations exists, and instead of consuming roads, pavements and roads, it would be more appropriate to use these spaces that are already available.