The goal is to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 by doing of Europe the first green continent in the world through the transformation of its industry, its economy and its approach to the environment.
All 28 EU countries, including Italy, will be called upon to do their part and will receive funds corresponding to their needs. For our country, the European Green Deal could therefore represent an opportunity to make a change in the industrial strategy, taking advantage of the resources coming from Brussels and the new regulations under discussion to heal some of the wounds left open, Ilva in primis. In fact, 364 million will come from the just transition fund, rising to 1,3 with state funding. In total, the green plan estimates investments in Italy equal to 4,8 billion.
THE GREEN NEW DEAL AND THE JUST TRANSITION FUND
On 14 January Paolo Gentiloni (Commissioner for the Economy), Johannes Hahn (Regional Policies) and Elisa Ferreira (Internal Market) presented the EU Parliament with the Just Transition Mechanism (mechanism for a fair transition), first and tangible rib of the Continental Green Deal, a 1.000 billion euro investment plan over 10 years coming partly from funds included in the EU budget (about 25%) and partly from the Mechanism for a just transition.
For the moment, the details of this green plan are not known, which therefore remains a mostly "theoretical" project. On the other hand, the first details of the mechanism for the just transition have been released. It is a package of measures that aims to allocate in total €100 billion from 2021 to 2027 for regions and sectors most affected by the energy transition due to their greater dependence on fossil fuels. But be careful because these are not new resources. A large part of these funds come from the redefinition of old projects and funding. 45 billion will come from a guarantee system connected to InvestEU (ex Juncker plan), 25-30 billion of investments will be mobilized through a system of loans to the public sector managed by the European Investment Bank. The Just Transition Fund will instead receive 7,5 billion of "fresh" funds to which further resources will be added, this time national. In fact, the Commission's proposal establishes that for every euro from the fund, the individual Member States must match money deriving from the regional development funds and the EU Social Plus fund and that they also allocate "own resources". "Togethered - explains the Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen - we arrive at a figure between 30 and 50 billion".
HOW TO ACCESS EU FUNDS
On the plate today there is only the Just Transition Fund from 7,5 billion. cthose with more problems will receive more money to carry on the energy transition. This is the basic criterion for accessing the funds. Individual Member States will have to present credible decarbonisation projects and respect certain parameters: have an intensity of emissions and a level of pollution at least twice as high as the European average and a high intensity of greenhouse gas emissions of the industrial sector at regional level; have a high number of employees in the coal and lignite sectors, the level of production of peat and shale oil. “All European countries will receive help. The allocation will depend on the intensity of the environmental problems”, explained the commissioner for the cohesion funds Elisa Ferreira.
GREEN DEAL: HOW MUCH MONEY WILL ITALY RECEIVE
Certainty will only come in 2021, when the funds from the green plan will actually be allocated, but according to data published by the EU Commission l'Italy could receive around 364 million euros of the 7,5 put on the plate, to be used to push the energy transition. To this figure will be added the co-financing of the State which will raise the amount to 1,3 billion.
If instead we consider all the "pillars" of the Green Plan, in the near future Italy will be able to count on 4,8 billion euros, a little less than France and a little more than Spain.
"I think it is appropriate to set up a table at the Prime Minister's Office to coordinate the work on the various energy transition projects", said the undersecretary in charge of investments, Marco Turco.
Responding to a question during the press conference, Gentiloni said: “it is clear that this fund, the Just Transition Fund, can concern Ilva, Puglia and in particular the area of Taranto, a typical manifestation of a region in transition towards a less energy intensive industry. However, this does not mean that the Ilva problem will be solved by the Just Transition Fund”.
Based on the current problems and the attempt that the Italian government is carrying out to try to relaunch the company, the former Ilva of Taranto could be included in the package of interventions to be carried out by exploiting the just transition fund. Further help will also come from the draft revision of the state aid rules, scheduled for 2021, which will help channel resources to industrial sectors in difficulty and which could allow the state to enter the company's capital together with ArcelorMittal.
In addition to Puglia, however, there could be other regions that meet the parameters set by Brussels. As you remember the Corriere della Sera “Italy is third in the tragic ranking of premature deaths due to air pollution, behind Bulgaria and Hungary” and for this reason it could be entitled to a large share of the funding. From a regional point of view also also Sardinia, due to the number of employees employed in coal-related activities and the Porto Torres petrochemical hub, could fall within the parameters, as well as Piedmont, currently in the throes of industrial reconversion, e Lombardy where pollution levels already exceed the European average.
(Last update: 12.54 pm on 16 January).
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