The President of the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis announced on Tuesday that he is organising an inter-regional conference on the issues raised by the collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, the catastrophic event that took 43 lives on August 14.

Christian Estrosi is calling on France, Italy and Europe as a whole to rethink the way in which the international transport of goods is conducted. In particular, he is in favour of the introduction of a European eco-tax to provide an incentive for rail transport.

The international conference will be held in Nice on October 4, with major French and Italian public authorities, businesses and transport firms invited.

Mr Estrosi said he wants to seize this opportunity to help stem the increase in the activities of international carriers, many of which are neither French nor Italian.