“No, it is not fair to place all the blame on the southern regions if such a delay has been accumulated in the use of the European structural funds. There are many reasons and the faults, if there are faults, must be attributed to several subjects. But the basic question is that, if the times for using these resources are long enough to consider the risk of losing a substantial part of them concrete, then an in-depth assessment of the real reasons for the slowness becomes indispensable. An operation that is not carried out because there does not seem to be any strategy on the subject by the government ".
The president of Svimez Adriano Giannola has no qualms - in this interview with "Firstonline" released at the end of the presentation of the previews of the 2014 Report on the economy of the South that the research institute will publish in the second half of September - in indicating those , in his opinion, are the real reasons for the southern regions' delays in spending the structural funds. Delays that make any intervention to at least try to reduce the gap, "by now structural" according to Svimez, between the South and the Centre-North even more problematic.
FIRSTONLINE – President Giannola, the undersecretary to the presidency of the Council Graziano Delrio has just recalled that by the end of next year Italy must account for the use of 21 billion euros relating to the previous seven-year European budgets. And that, of these, 16 refer to the South. How can you avoid losing them?
GIANNOLA – “The first step, I repeat, should be to try to understand the reasons for these chronic slownesses. Because, if the diagnosis is wrong, the therapy will in all likelihood be wrong."
FIRSTONLINE – President, do you intend to say that the Southern Regions are exempt from liability?
GIANNOLA - "Absolutely not. The southern regions have their share of the blame, there is no doubt. And, in the presence of clarified responsibilities, perhaps the intervention of a national authority could be appropriate. But it would also be appropriate to ask whether the rules on the use and reporting of European funds are sufficiently streamlined. If that were the case, then the responsibilities would at least be shared with Brussels. And that's not all..."
FIRSTONLINE – What else is there?
GIANNOLA – “There is that a strategy for a more correct use of the structural funds should address with the EU and its European partners an issue that cannot continue to be neglected. And that contributes heavily to keeping our South in the corner”.
FIRSTONLINE - Which?
GIANNOLA – “Fiscal dumping, in other words a sort of substantially unfair competition (although formally respectful of the rules of the game), by other EU member states”.
FIRSTONLINE – President, what are you referring to?
GIANNOLA – “To the ruthless competition of some countries, especially Eastern Europe, against our South. Legitimate competition if it is on equal terms. But on the one hand there is a weak area, the South of Italy, with the constraints legitimately imposed on the entire country by belonging to the euro, with labor costs also dependent on particularly strong protections, but also with a structural primary surplus. And on the other, State X – for example, let's say Poland? – which has a national currency in which it can operate to support exports, in which the cost of labor is no more than half of the Italian one, and a much more advantageous tax regime than ours. If this is the case – and this is the reality – can the competition between State X and our South be defined on equal terms?”.
FIRSTONLINE – Then what to do?
GIANNOLA – "Strong action by Italy towards the EU would be essential to re-establish, at least in part, a balance that does not exist".
FIRSTONLINE – For example, beating your fists on the table to at least get public investment spending co-financed by Brussels to be excluded from the deficit calculation?
GIANNOLA – “This could be one of the paths to take. I would add that it would also be necessary to make the comparison with our European partners weigh the fact that, in calculating the give and take with Europe, Italy is a net contributor”.
FIRSTONLINE – And why, in your opinion, are these roads not traveled?
GIANNOLA – “This should be asked of the government. Which would probably respond by putting forward the obligation to comply with the internal stability pact, which would not allow for a fiscal advantage, for example, of Sicily over Lombardy. More or less what Europe objected (the Commissioner for Competition was Mario Monti) motivating the no to a more attractive tax regime in favor of the South, along the lines of the one authorized for a smaller and less populous area which was the 'Ireland".
FIRSTONLINE – Is there no hope on this front then?
GIANNOLA – “I'm afraid there is very little. But you could try asking. And also to ask another question, which the former Minister for Territorial Cohesion Carlo Trigilia asked himself in a very recent interview. To understand if the press rumors according to which the government is thinking of reducing the national co-financing quota to close the game of partially unused structural funds are reliable. A gimmick – here I agree with Trigilia – which, if confirmed, would take the form of a sort of disguised financial manoeuvre”.
