The Italian cabinet is set to OK a
decree banning cruise ships from Venice, government sources said
Tuesday.
The decree, which will be examined by the cabinet later Tuesday,
also safeguards the workers involved, the sources said.
UNESCO said on June 21 that Venice's survival will be even more
in peril if the lagoon city doesn't issue a permanent ban on
cruise ships docking there.
The UN heritage body said it would examine a proposal to put
Venice on its endangered list at its plenary session on July 16
to 31.
If approved, it would demand urgent action by the Italian
government by next February.
A ban on cruise ships appeared to have been passed earlier this
year but the seaborne behemoths subsequently returned to Venice.
There have long been calls for cruise ships to be banned from
Venice because of their impact on the city's delicate historic
buildings and on the lagoon's unique ecosytem.
The drive to ban them intensified after a cruise ship crashed
into a quay in June 2019.
Last May 12 the Lower House gave definitive approval to a decree
banning cruise ships from mooring in Venice.
The decree says a plan for the berth of the cruise ships outside
the Venice lagoon must be drawn up and implemented.
In the meantime, big ships will keep docking at the city's
industrial port, which has been the landing site for them since
last December.
Culture minister Dario Franceschini said after the UNESCO news
that "we took an important step in the decree by putting the
big-ship docking outside the lagoon, and now I think more must
be done such as stopping the ships going down the Giudecca
Canal".
He said the "UNESCO decision, sadly, was in the air for a while"
and said Venice being put on the endangered list "would be a
serious thing for our country, and there is no time to
hesitate".
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