The European Commission criticizes, the Italian government reassures. The game on the European structural funds due to Italy is not over, but Undersecretary Graziano Delrio says that we are now in the final stages. Certainly so far, in addition to the little reassuring Eurispes data on 2007-2014, there are only the observations from Brussels on our country's latest partnership agreement, the document edited by Delrio himself to illustrate how the over 41 billion in funds will be used Europeans that Italy will receive between this year and 2020 (32 for the cohesion policy plus 10 linked to the Agricultural Fund: the highest sum after the one that will go to Poland).
In a letter sent to Rome a month ago and the contents of which were disclosed today by the newspaper La Repubblica, the European Executive spares almost nothing: from the absence of a "real strategy" on the Digital Agenda, infrastructure and the defense of cultural heritage , to the few resources used to combat school dropouts, passing through the shortcomings in the field of "water management, transport and employment policies". More generally, the Commission speaks of "still insufficient identification of the structural interventions necessary to regain competitiveness" and above all of poor "administrative capacity".
RENZI: EU FUNDS NOT SPENT BY THE REGIONS TO SCHOOLS
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi commented on these findings during the press conference at the Expo construction sites: "From Palazzo Chigi – he assured – European funds have begun to be withdrawn from the Regions that do not spend them and put on schools". According to the Prime Minister, up to now Italy "has spent the structural funds worse than it could have" and for this reason "the government will try to change the employment model".
DELRIO: THE 40 BILLION IN 2014-2020 ARE OPPORTUNITIES, NOT RISKS
In a more thoughtful note, Delrio affirmed that “the 40 billion EU funds of the partnership agreement still to be stipulated represent today if anything the opportunity to spend them all down to the last penny, not the risk of losing them. The Commission's observations have not called into question the structure of the Italian agreement proposal, which the Commission has indeed invited us to respect but suggesting, in constant dialogue with the Italian Government, refinements and clarifications, very often completely acceptable”.
The meeting of the Italian government with Commissioner Hahn last July made it possible to clarify the most relevant points of the Commission's position: "Based on the intense work carried out in recent weeks - continues Delrio - I can state that we are now close to closing the final text of the Partnership Agreement in September, in accordance with the timetable that we set ourselves. The work has made it possible to better specify, among other things, the commitment to strengthening institutional capacity, which will be implemented through the preparation of specific administrative reorganization plans by all the administrations holding structural funds”.
BRUSSELS: AGREEMENT IN THE NEXT WEEKS
For its part, the representation in Italy of the European Commission specified that “the partnership agreement envisaged under the cohesion policy for Italy in the period 2014-2020 has neither been rejected nor frozen. but it is the subject of a continuous and productive negotiation process between the Commission services and the Italian government, as foreseen by the current rules. Thanks to the efforts of the Italian authorities, the discussion on the document (which represents a framework agreement on all operational programs for the next program period) is progressing well towards an adoption in the coming weeks. In particular, at the beginning of July the Commission sent its observations on the draft agreement which the Italian government had in turn submitted to it on 22 April. Currently, the Commission services and the responsible Italian ministries are reviewing the text with a view to adoption. At the same time, the Commission services have started analyzing and commenting on Italy's proposals for the specific regional and national operational programmes”.
