Cohesion policy under observation
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It was with the Delors report of 1989 that Europe began to put the convergence of economically less developed regions at the center of its political agenda. The first funds were then activated to support the growth of the poorest regions, until 2000, when the cohesion policy was organized for seven-year-olds, as we know it today. After more than thirty years, cohesion policy is being watched. The lack of convergence of some European regions, the arrival of the NGEU designed by Europe in the post pandemic with very different criteria, the global dynamics that tend to agglomerate resources towards the “center” to the detriment of the “peripheries”, are the main elements who in recent years have questioned the cohesion system and asked a question: does cohesion policy work? This question is especially alive in those countries where cohesion has been operating for decades and where, despite efforts, the processes of convergence have far from been activated.
Cohesion and Italy, cohesion and the Mezzogiorno
The most attentive country from this point of view is certainly Italy. The recent “Report on the state of implementation of the European and national cohesion policy, 2014-2020 programming” of the Ministry for European Affairs, the South, Cohesion Policies and the PNRR, highlights a fact: the EU certified expenditure of the 2014 programming -2020 as at 31 December 2022 is approximately 54%. Overall, out of approximately 65 billion resources – of which 33 billion from European Funds, 20 billion from national resources and 12 billion from REACT-EU (measure conceived in the NGEU) – just over 35 billion were the resources spent and certified by the Commission European. But why is Italy spending resources so slowly, running the risk of seeing them “disengaged” by the European Commission?
From the aforementioned report it can be seen that the regions of the South and Islands register lower average spending percentages than the regions of the Centre-North. In particular, only for the POR data on the ERDF (expenditure programs managed directly by the Regions), Sicily stands at 56%, Campania 57%, Abruzzo 60%, Sardinia 70% and Puglia 84%; for the central-northern regions: Lombardy 63%, Piedmont 71%, Veneto 73%, Lazio 75% and Emilia-Romagna 100%. Despite the different amounts of funding (example: Campania has funding equal to about nine times that of Emilia-Romagna and therefore greater complexity to manage), there is certainly a difference between the spending capacity of the regions of the South and those of the Centre-North.
What are the causes of these delays? Cohesion, as it is structured today, requires high levels of policy planning and implementation. In the South, these skills are often dispersed in a high fragmentation of programs and tools to be introduced, in a PA lacking both from a quantitative and qualitative point of view, in a complex regulatory and procedural context that tends to slow down the already complex decision-making process rather than speed it up. And this is not an exclusive problem of the southern regions but a dynamic that also affects central institutions. In fact, it is enough to observe the progress of the NOPs (projects that depend directly on the Ministries and not on the regions) and find even lower progress states than those of the southern regions: NOP Enterprises 55%, Culture 42%, Research 33%, Governance 26 %, Work (SPAO) 25%.
Cohesion and PNRR
The scarce spending capacity of the cohesion funds cannot therefore disregard a broader assessment concerning a general setback of the country system both from the point of view of its planning capacity and the quality of the PA, i.e. the structures that must then concretely implement investment programs. Lastly, without forgetting the gradual exit from the scene of ordinary politics which, following the cuts that began in the years of the great crisis 2008-2009, effectively gave way to the resources of cohesion entrusting it with a task that goes well beyond its real capabilities . Finally, there is a fact that should make us wonder about the state of health of the country’s system in terms of its ability to plan, spend and, above all, grow. In the 2021-2027 programming, the Marche and Umbria regions, which in 2014-2020 were among the “most developed” regions, have been downgraded to “transition” regions. This indicates a general retreat of Italy and should lead us to think of solutions for the entire country system.
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