Pompeii' 105-mn-euro revamp 'ready by 2015' say ministers

Italy accepts EU criticism on spending delays on historic site

(ANSA) - Pompeii, July 17 - Cultural Minister Dario Franceschini pledged the Italian government will catch up on delays in restoring and revamping the Pompeii archaeological site and treat completing the ambitious 105-million-euro Great Pompeii Project as a "national challenge". "The challenge of Pompeii is a challenge for the nation," Franceschini said. Cabinet Undersecretary Graziano Delrio for his part said, "We accept the challenge to make good the delays. There have been delays and we don't deny it." Franceschini and Delrio made their remarks as they signed an agreement with European Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn for a joint action plan between the Commission and the Rome government to accelerate work on the Great Pompeii Project safeguarding the unique site created when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, preserving the entire city in ash.

Hahn for his part insisted that the restoration work must be completed by the end of next year, underlining that so far only 25% of the 105 million euros in funds earmarked for the ruins have been used by the Italian government and only 1.5 million euros actually spent. Delrio said that government projects involving spending of over 50 million euros often take as long as nine years to complete in Italy but stressed that in the case of Pompeii the timetable will be respected.

Giovanni Nistri, director of the Great Project, said that his team are considering instituting work during vacations and shifts from dawn to dusk and even working at night to meet the deadlines demanded by Brussels. Official sources said the lengthy tendering procedure used for work on the archaeological site in the past will be streamlined, meaning that companies will be assigned integrated contracts rather than separate tendering being practised for every phase of an individual project.

The Great Project was suspended at one stage after an appeal against the company that won the main tender. In April heavy rains led to several reports of collapsed walls, soon after UNESCO warnings that the miraculously preserved ancient city could "completely fall apart" and lose its world heritage status unless urgent action was taken. That triggered government pledges to speed up tendering for work on other new surveillance and protection measures for the site. There has been a long and worrying catalogue of bits of Pompeii falling off. For example, in November 2010 the House of the Gladiators came down, prompting Italian President Giorgio Napolitano to say: "This is a disgrace for the whole of Italy".