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CONSERVATION WORKERS AT the long-neglected Roman city of Pompeii have begun a €105 million makeover partly funded by the EU today – one day after former site managers were put under investigation for corruption.
The project, which is being funded to the tune of €41.8 million from the European Union and is to be completed by 2015, is seen as crucial for the survival of Pompeii after a series of collapses at the 44-hectare site in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.
The giant erupting volcano devastated Pompeii nearly 2,000 years ago in 79 AD but the ash and rock helped preserve many buildings almost in their original state, as well as forming eerie shapes around the curled-up corpses of victims of the disaster.
The hugely popular site near Naples has come to symbolise the decades of mismanagement of many of Italy’s cultural treasures, as well as the fallout from recent austerity cuts in budgets for culture.
The repairs are aimed at reducing the risk of exposure to the elements, reinforcing the ancient Roman buildings, restoring Pompeii’s famous frescoes and increasing video surveillance at the site where security has been lax for many years.
The work begun on Wednesday was on two ancient Roman homes – one known as the Criptoportico and the other as the Casa dei Dioscuri, one of the most finely decorated buildings in the ruins.
(AP Photo/Franco Castano’)
“It’s a first small step to revamp the whole area,” said European Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn, who inaugurated the project along with Italy’s interior, culture and regional policy ministers.
“It is absolutely necessary that we have a programme to revamp cultural sites in Italy. It is also a huge business economic opportunity,” he said.
Hahn stressed it would be carried out with “full transparency” after a series of scandals at Pompeii.
Investigation
On the eve of the opening ceremony, Italian financial police announced they were investigating Marcello Fiori, a former director of the site appointed by then prime minister Silvio Berlusconi in 2009, for alleged abuse of office.
Luigi D’Amora, Pompeii’s previous supervisor of restoration work, was also accused of defrauding the state. Meanwhile a former contractor, Annamaria Caccavo, was placed under house arrest for hugely inflating costs.
One contract priced by Caccavo at €449,882 ended up costing the state €4.84 million, prosecutors said in court documents.
(Eye Ubiquitous/Press Association Images)
The works “were not essential” for preserving Pompeii and were geared towards holding stage performances in the ruins of the ancient city.
The latest renovations will be managed by a “steering committee” with Italian government ministries and European Union representatives to ensure that the funds are not misspent.
“We will be very strict on the timetable,” Fabrizio Barca, Italy’s minister for territorial cohesion, who oversees regional spending, said earlier.
The “Grand Pompeii Project” will also improve facilities for visitors and the European Commission estimates the number of tourists could increase from around 2.3 million a year to 2.6 million by 2017.
Unveiling the plans last year, Prime Minister Mario Monti said it showed the need for “courage and strength” to carry out complex projects in southern Italy which has long been plagued by under-investment and high corruption.
Pompeii, a UNESCO World Heritage site, provides a snapshot of daily life in Roman times and includes such gems as the famous Villa of Mysteries, which is decorated with frescos that appear to show a woman’s initiation ceremony into a cult.
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The ECB states the it not answerable to national governments. I would like to know to whom exactly it is answerable to?
I think it is time for Ireland to examine our relationship with the EU and the rules of this club that seems to be run by and for the exclusive benefit of the big three.
Jack , good point. Also , Draghi has answered in the Italian Parliament . Why won’t this guy go to our Oireachtas?
Jack did anyone ever doubt that it has always been run for the benefit of the big three. In my job that has been blatantly obvious for over 30 years. Its only in the last 10 that we have had to comply with the help of our own governments. We have been scoring an own goal constantly since.
Fiscal Treaty 2 – is now a legal imperative considering the cover-up of the Trichet letter until it was passed – Would it pass now ? – Would it F…k !
Trichet is only making a showing because he knows that the people have woken up to the bail out con job. he wants to put some spin on why it was so important to financially enslave the people of this country for the foreseeable future.
Will he get out alive ? – Sin an Ceist .
We are mushrooms, fed shiit and kept in the dark.
Correct!
The only things you need to know about the banking inquiry; millions of taxpayers money will be wasted, political theatre will be in full effect, fcuk all transparency and ultimately there will never be any accountability…..boils my Pi$$!
Yeah,7 years later they are going to grill him,they won’t give him time to think of excuses,they are striking when the iron is hot,fair play to ye.
This banking inquire is starting to bore.
I’ve said it before. Permit me the issue and control of a countries monies and I care not who makes the law……
This inquiry may shed some light on this but what i want to know is when are the low lifes responsible are going to be prosecuted for any criminal wrong doings? We are spending millions on an inquiry and at the end of the day nothing is done about it.
Mr Trichet illegally stepped beyond his ECB remit when he threatened to withdraw liquidity funding from Irish banks at the height of the banking crisis in order to make a national government bend to his political will.
Ridiculous and scandalous when u consider the ECB is suppose to deal with money supply (not unsupply) and inflation only…..everything else is for the politicians to sort out, as per the treaties…..but who cares about all that Mr Trichet when u have Angela Merkel and whoever else on the end of the phone eh?
He threw Ireland under the bus (with the help of an incompetent and naive Irish government)…..there’s no way he’d voluntarily show up in Leinster House to clarify anything.
What happened is sadly very simple, in two steps:
1. The banks were deregulated across the western world, and allowed to gamble with savings and deposits for the first time since the great depression in most countries, their gambling built a giant house of cards that eventually came crashing down when it got away from them.
2. Because they used our savings and deposits they were able to team up with the ECB to say “bail us out or we take your money down with us” and they knew in most EU countries, esp Ireland, they had a cabinet that had no real understanding of even basic economics so they are easy to manipulate.
3. Despite this fact, Lenihan and a few others think “well Anglo has no atms or current accounts why don’t we let that fail?” and this clown threatened to refuse to help fund our deficit if he did that, and our cabinet, being again economically ignorant, didn’t realize that this was a total bluff, that if they’d let us go down we’d have taken the entire Euro with us.
The worst news? No real reforms in place since and in 8-10 years it will all happen again.
ELECTION NOW
END BANKSTER BUDDIE NOONANS REIGN
your caps are on…
I thought all this stuff that’s unfolding now was just tin foil hat conspiracy nonsense , how wrong I was !
The conspirators are the government and their elite buddies conspiring against the people for their own greedy ends. Mass boycott the water tax imposed on us to keep their machine oiled nothing to with maintaining pipes.
Hope someone from Ireland’s Banking Inquiry asks Jean-Claud Trichet whether ECB now has essential checks-and-balance procedures in place at ECB to ensure no National Central Bank within eurozone can crash an economy like what happened with Ireland’s.
ECB, aided and abetted by Ireland’s CB, are as guilty as hell in my book, for the fiscal cock up of biblical proportions visited on our economy following 2008 Financial crisis, the effects of which will linger for generations.
Hope Shane Ross is chomping at the bit for this showdown?
So Right” Scottie “Transparency be dammed” inthe the full knowledge,we can milk the cash cows, makes me so angry
Biggest heist in Irish history .. Well planned well orchestrated .. White collar crime and no accountability
We know who’s accountable. The problem is no prison time has been served, no sentences handed down. 7 years and not a single banker or politician serving time.
Let that linger.
I’m sure they’ll be enormously illuminating……snore, snore, snore. If ANYONE thinks that even one of this pack of jackals is remotely interested in speaking the truth at this ridiculous enquiry they are sadly mistaken. I take this opportunity, hower, of saluting Joe Higgins for his valiant efforts, nonetheless.
The ECB is answerable to the Bond Holders, the European Central Bondholders
We should arrest him as soon as he arrives.
It is magic…
have your say