European funds: Commissioner Ferreira’s commitments to the Fitto reform

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BRUSSELS – «Member states are sovereign and can decide how to organize all processes internally. Our regulations require certain characteristics to make this possible. In particular, a bottom-up approach is needed, based on democratic principles and in line with the rules of cohesion policy which require units organized at a regional level.” This was stated by Elisa Ferreira, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, responding to a question on the reform of the national cohesion policy that the Minister for the South, Raffaele Fitto, included as a milestone in the revision of the Pnrr. The deadline indicated for the approval of the reform was the first quarter of this year. The deadline has expired, so the definition should be imminent.

Excellent reports, we hope for quick procedures

«Relations with Italy are excellent» underlined Elisa Ferreira in a press conference on the sidelines of the ninth cohesion forum underway in Brussels. «I have also spoken in the past with various ministers, Giuseppe Provenzano, Mara Carfagna and now with Raffaele Fitto. I have always had excellent relationships with them. Obviously, we must be sure that the reform respects these conditions, bottom up and the principle of democratic relations »she repeated. «If this is the case, Italy is entitled to modify the internal organization as it wishes. We hope that the procedures will be quite quick, since Italy is one of the main beneficiaries not only of the cohesion funds but also of the RRF funds of the Next Generation Eu and has the old problem of the South”.

The fears are not just Italian

The reform that Minister Fitto is working on worries the regions which fear the tendency to centralize the management of a policy which has so far had a strong territorial vocation. But the concern is not just Italian. The discussion on this issue is European, in view of the new commission and the preparation work of the next common budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework. There has been discussion for some time about whether to adopt the RRF model for structural funds, centralizing the disbursement of European funds at state level, “in exchange” for national reforms requested by Brussels. A top-down approach exactly opposite to the place-based philosophy of regional cohesion policy.

“As we approach the European elections, we must talk about cohesion policy and fight to make it more efficient, more incisive, not to replace it with new territorially blind instruments, such as RRF, the Recovery and Resilience Facility,” Emil told the forum Boc, president of the Commission for Cohesion and the EU Budget of the Committee of the Regions. «In recent years we have seen farmers, industrial workers and young Europeans protest against growing inequalities. Europe is the solution. Cohesion policy is the solution. We can no longer allow inequalities to grow in Europe.”

“This is no time for either complacency or ‘business as usual’ discussions about this policy and its future. If we do not mobilize and defend a common vision of a renewed policy for all regions, based on its fundamental principles, we risk being faced with a future cohesion policy only in name” insisted the president of the Committee, Vasco Alves Cordeiro. “And this is a threat to the European Union project as a whole.” The battle has begun.