Eighty million euros less. This is the slimming cure for European funding destined for the Puglia Region. The EU Court confirmed the cut in subsidies, within the framework of the regional development fund, confirming a decision taken by the European Commission in 2009 and contested with an appeal by Italy. The reason? “The serious deficiencies demonstrated by the Italian authorities in the management and control of the use of EU funds are such as to lead to systemic irregularities”, explains the EU Court.
The European Commission had noted a series of irregularities in 2007 in the control system on the use of funds, subsequently reducing the financing of certified expenditure to Puglia by 10%. Translated into euros: 127 million. The cut was later softened to 80 million euros.
Italy then appealed to the General Court of the European Union. A move rejected to the sender, because the court considered that "the inadequacies found by the Commission call into question the effectiveness of the entire fund management and control system and therefore present a significant risk of loss for the Union budget ”.
The president of the Vendola Region, commenting on the Court's decision in a note, underlines that "there are no consequences either as regards the projects financed under the 2000-2006 program or even less so on the 2007-2013 one, because the reporting level was so much higher than the Program budget, that the cut was absorbed without consequences. The sentence of the Court of the European Union – he adds – photographs a situation of the past, relating to the system of controls of Por Puglia 2000-2006, inherited from the previous administration, and which we promptly addressed and resolved”. Therefore, the complaint would concern the management of the funds of the administration led by Raffaele Fitto.
“Puglia – adds Vendola – is one of the few Italian regions for which the European Commission has definitively and officially approved the final reporting of the 2000-2006 programme, confirming the good performance of the management and control system. Today we are the Region that is considered one of the most efficient in Europe precisely because of its controls and management. We looked exactly at that criticality, inherited from the Fitto administration, and we intervened definitively as duly verified by the European Commission in the controls carried out in the following years and also confirmed by the 2013 report to the Italian Parliament of the Italian Court of Auditors on the use of community funds".
"Precisely because of the great effort put in place - concluded Vendola - we felt at the time, in agreement with the Italian State, that we had to challenge that decision and although it is a mere question of principle we will evaluate, again with the State, the opportunity to appeal".
