The Fréjus Tunnel Operating Consortium: European economic interest grouping (EEIG)

From the beginning, the Fréjus tunnel has been jointly operated by the two concession holding companies, SFTRF for France and SITAF for Italy, in application of the Franco-Italian convention dated February 23rd, 1972, notably for all questions relating to maintenance and safety in the tunnel.

An Economic Interest Grouping (EIG), was created on September 21st, 1988, to coordinate the two companies and fix the terms and conditions for division of revenue and expenditure. To meet European requirements regarding tunnel operation on cross boarder road networks, as per article 5 of the European directive 2004/54/CE dated April 29th, 2004, in 2004 the EIG became a European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG).

On May 1st, 2007 SFTRF and SITAF set up The Fréjus Tunnel Operating Consortium to ensure management of the tunnel by a single entity. The concession holding companies gave the Fréjus Tunnel Operating Consortium a mandate for management, conservation and operation of the tunnel, excluding new work, renewing major equipment and/or installations, extraordinary expenditure and toll collection ; these activities are still carried out by the concession holding companies.

The EEIG- Fréjus Tunnel Operating Consortium entity is entirely controlled by SFTRF and SITAF. It has its own operational management team. The French and Italian emergency services teams in charge of safety, and the teams in charge of running and maintaining the tunnel installations are part of this structure, this within the framework of a secondment contract placing these SFTRF and SITAF staff at the disposal of the operating consortium.

Setting up a single operating entity contributes to improved safety, traffic conditions and services for users of the Fréjus tunnel, by precisely identifying the missions of all players, and reinforcing homogenisation of best practices and staff training between France and Italy.

The EEIG- Fréjus Tunnel Operating Consortium management team is composed as follows:

• A Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Executive of EEIG- Fréjus Tunnel Operating Consortium whose functions alternate between an Italian and a Frenchman/woman.
• A Chief Operations Officer and a Technical Director, from one of the constituent companies (SFTRF and SITAF) who support the Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Executive. They may alternate their functions every four years.

The Fréjus Tunnel Operating Consortium Board of Directors is chaired by Emidio SANTUCCI. It is made up of the following members:

• For the French part: Didier SIMONNET, Jean-Claude RAFFIN, Pierre RIMATTEI et Georges LOUIS.
• For the Italian part: Gianni LUCIANI, Bernardo MAGRI, Emidio SANTUCCI, Giuseppe CERUTTI et Stefano GRANATI.
• For management control Benoît LEBRUN and Vito FUSCO.

The steering committee of The Fréjus Tunnel Operating Consortium includes Christian GAIOTTINO, Chief Executive Salvatore SERGI, Deputy Chief Executive, Jean-Marc COUVERT, Technical Director and Gian Luigi CAREGNATO, Chief Operations Officer.