Pathways to Prosperity: How Government Initiatives Can Ignite the Potential of Tomorrow’s Leaders

The RIPAM competition for the hiring of 2,200 new officials starts today in the territorial administrations of Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Puglia, Sardinia and Sicily and at the Department for Cohesion Policies and for the South, organized by Department of Public Function of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, in agreement with the Department for Cohesion Policies and for the South. The Government’s initiative – supported by the European Commission and financed with European and national resources through the National Program Capacity for Cohesion 2021-2027 – provides for permanent contracts for additional staff compared to the allocation of the recipient bodies. The inclusion of young graduates also responds to the Government’s strategic objectives regarding the modernization of public administration, with a view to improving the effectiveness of public action through innovation, digitalisation and new skills.

The President of the Council of Ministers, Giorgia Meloni, expressed great satisfaction with this important result: “A commitment made by the Government to meet the needs repeatedly represented by the territories and to offer new opportunities to young people. This is an important strengthening of the administrative capacity of the regions of Southern Italy which, with new talents and skills, will have new impetus for the implementation of projects financed by cohesion policy”. The new hires will, in fact, be dedicated to ensuring a more efficient use of European funds and accelerating the socio-economic development of the territories involved, thus contributing to the overall growth of the Nation and the reduction of historic territorial gaps. In particular, the national competition responds to the strengthening needs expressed, through an expression of interest, by Municipalities, Union of Municipalities, Provinces, Metropolitan Cities and Regions of the areas involved, and is included among the Government’s priorities to qualify the use of European resources, improve spending performance and thus guarantee the full achievement of cohesion policy objectives in the South.

The competition procedures will be concluded by the end of 2024 and the winners will participate in a training course focused on cohesion policies, in order to be fully operational from the spring of 2025. Furthermore, for entities that will not be able to benefit from the new hires, there is a parallel strengthening initiative, to accompany the full implementation of cohesion policy projects in the territory through a technical-specialist support service, also financed in this case with resources from the National Capacity for Cohesion Program 2021-2027. The Minister for European Affairs, the South, Cohesion Policies and the PNRR, Raffaele Fitto, also commented: “This result is the result of intense and fruitful work that lasted months, through continuous dialogue with the territories and with the Commission European. As we promised in the coalition program, we are making the use of European resources increasingly efficient, also thanks to the specialization of over two thousand new skills that will be specifically trained on this. This is a unique opportunity for Italy.”