(Adnkronos) – The Mont Blanc tunnel’s expansion is crucial for the whole of northwest Italy and the government is renewing its request to France to build a second tube that will boost a key transport link for Italian exports and tourism, foreign minister Antonio Tajani said Thursday ahead of a meeting with the Italy-France Border Cooperation Committee.
“We are here to once again demonstrate our strong commitment to the transportation system and connectivity between Italy and France,” Tajani said in Forte di Bard in the Aosta Valley, where the meeting was set to take place.
“The tunnel issue is crucial to the economic development not only of Valle d’Aosta and Piedmont, but I would say of the whole of Italy’s northwest,” said Tajani, flanked by the regions’ governors, Renzo Testolin and Alberto Cirio.
“Today we will once again ask France to choose the option of a second tube to proceed with the tunnel’s expansion,” Tajani said.
As well as strengthening transport links between Italy and France, a second Mont Blanc tunnel tube will not cause more pollution but will in fact reduce it due to fewer traffic jams on both sides of the tunnel, Tajani argued.
“We hope that France will respond positively to our proposal, just as Switzerland did,” Tajani went on.
“We will continue to insist and work on this because it is the best way to propel economic development, exports, tourism, and to reduce pollution both on the Italian side here in the Aosta Valley and on the French side,” Tajani said.
Italy’s government sees a second Mont Blanc tunnel tube as “vital for economic growth and environmental protection,” said Tajani, who wants to put the issue on the agenda at the Italian-French summit in Cannes taking place at the end of June after the G7 summit (in Evian from 15-17 June).
At the Frejus road tunnel, an alternative Alpine route, a second tube entered into service last July that has significantly improved safety and service continuity, according to transport experts. The Mont Blanc tunnel was closed for four months in 2025 for structural work and safety system tests – at a cost of 1.5 billion euros to Italy’s economy according to private business lobby Confindustria.
Debate over the construction of a second Mont Blanc tube is being fuelled by the prospect of an extended maintenance programme that could cause the tunnel’s closure for several years from 2030 or a series of repeated seasonal closures over several decades.
