The decree law on the reorganization of cohesion policy is expected in the Council of Ministers on 30 April. This was confirmed on Saturday by the Minister for European Affairs, the South, Cohesion Policies and the Pnrr, Raffaele Fitto, on the sidelines of the FdI programmatic conference in Pescara.
«We are working on the decree, adding anything else would not be useful at this moment – he says – I am not used to giving indiscretions. It is a very important reform which, as is known, was also included on the indication of the government in the discussion with the EU Commission among the seven new reforms that the government has implemented in the revision of the Pnrr, it has become a milestone and is one of the objectives of the sixth installment”. In reality, the decree should act above all on governance mechanisms, attempting to extend the logic of time constraints, according to a rigid timetable, already introduced for the National Development and Cohesion Fund to the structural funds. The focus will be on the 2021-2027 cycle which counts on almost 43 billion (to which approximately 32 billion in national co-financing are added). But the government will have to act carefully, because the management rules of EU funds, especially to avoid risks of centralization to the detriment of the Regions, are carefully monitored by the EU. «The objective is to intervene structurally on some limits and deficits that have represented the cohesion policies of our country – comments Fitto – It is a known fact. It is enough to read the eighth and ninth reports on cohesion presented two weeks ago by the European Commission, so there is a need to intervene on this, to make this work organic with the Pnrr”.
The minister’s vision and the fears of the regions
According to the minister’s vision, «following having reformed the Development and Cohesion Fund, this path is completed with this important reform which puts in place a governance model capable of making the use of these resources effective and efficient». The regions fear not only that the reform might result in a further centralization of the management of resources for cohesion, overcoming the territorial nature of this policy, but also a dangerous lengthening of time which would be added to that produced indirectly by waiting for agreements for the cohesion desired by Fitto and which caused a delay of at least ten months, in the case of some regions of the South even more.
#Cohesion #reform #ready #Thick #resources
2024-04-30 17:04:46
