It will not be easy for the anti-Europeans of our country to explain to the Italians in the coming weeks why 2,4 billion euros of extra EU funds are of no use to us. We do it ourselves, perhaps by printing lire. In the hours in which the second electoral campaign of 2018 is starting, however, the European Commission on the cohesion funds for the period 2021-2027 has proposed a 6% increase in resources for Italy.
There is a good chance that the proposal will pass as early as June. A total budget of 38,6 billion drawn up without any contingent political influence. Only a new strategy towards the countries of Southern Europe, with a simultaneous contraction of resources to the Eastern countries. In practice, 330 billion are moved from one area of Europe to another, to see spending on the environment, energy, technology and infrastructure grow.
The countries receiving the new funds are Italy, Greece and Spain, i.e. those that are even more in need of structural reforms. Already in the current 2014-2020 programming this need was clear and shared in the European summits. Some good practices exhibited in the EU in recent years – despite the bureaucratic slowdowns – have led the Commission to include Italy among the states that can still improve. It is clear that an anti-European political leadership would have compromised such a favorable context.
Although in Brussels they have not imagined direct relations between the two phenomena. It is certain, however, that whoever represents Italy in the Brussels commissions would have been embarrassed to make the reasons for certain choices understood. But if the money increases, the checks will also increase. A point still to be defined in detail, proposed as a sort of coupon, which in the middle of the period will certify whether the resources are really following fair and virtuous channels.
2018, to remain today, must give some backlash. If a good account of the programming of the 2014-2020 funds is not made, Italy runs the risk of even being penalised. There are 21,6 billion on the plate to be spent by 31 December this year. We are at 50% according to data from the Brussels offices, but there they know that our Regions accelerate the final balances between July and December.
The major interventions in the Southern Regions - Campania, Puglia, Basilicata, Sicily, Calabria - on infrastructural networks and mobility will certainly go beyond 2018. Projects on which the "legacies" of the 2007-2013 funds also weigh. Everything should be completed within the year as has already happened with 9 finalized projects and totally paid to the regional governors. The same Commission that has asked for more confidence in Italy has reassuring news from the Marches, Liguria, Veneto, Abruzzo, Molise for the construction sites open on education, safety and energy.
Last but not least, the projects on smart grids – of which there is great need – in the South have a budget of 290 million euros entirely allocated by the European Union. The government contract left great doubts about the concrete realization of such projects. It has not been successful, while businesses and local communities are waiting for the start of the construction sites. Very similar to the trust that came from Brussels. Is it still conceivable to say no to Europe?
