EU funds, 8 billion at risk for young people and active policies

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In Italy, perpetually on the hunt for funds for work, it risks sounding like yet another paradox to have around 8 billion in European funds, 2014-20 programming, still unspent and accounted for as at 31 December 2022. And if we don’t do it by December 2023 these resources (or part of them) could be disengaged, i.e. lost. A bad signal in view of the new community programming, 2021-27, which for the items of work, education, training and inclusion assigns us more than 17 billion between national and regional programs (the “Women, youth and work” program alone is worth over 5 billions to support youth and female employment, the inclusion of the most vulnerable, disabled and long-term unemployed individuals, and the adaptation of skills to the double green and digital transition). But let’s proceed in order.

Spending delays

The alarm bell was sounded at the end of the year press conference by the premier, Giorgia Meloni, who had underlined how, “while we were spending 8 billion to give the basic income to those who could work, Italy was not spending 8 billion from the fund European Social”.

The details emerge from the official documentation published by the Cohesion Agency, reworked for our newspaper by the Work, Cohesion and Territory Service of the Uil. And they are, unfortunately, not flattering. On the two main programs dedicated to work, namely “Youth Employment Initiative” and “Active Employment Policy Systems” in the previous seven-year period we had a total of 10.7 billion to spend; we spent 2.8, 26.17%. We had 2.8 billion to spend on the first programme, which also includes the failed Youth Guarantee initiative. As at 31 December 2022, the certified resources spent were 1.8 billion, i.e. 63.4%. One billion is missing from the appeal. The numbers are worse on the other program dedicated to active employment policies, where out of almost 8 billion EU funds available we have spent and certify at the end of 2022 just 13.2%, equal to just over a billion ( seven remain).

The recovery attempt

certor, with the expenditure incurred for the granting of the exemptions already foreseen in the 2021 maneuver and their extension for 2023 we could, in part, recover. It is already hypothesized to “draw” from these funds still in the balance to cover a further annuity of the 30% southern contribution, authorized until the end of 2023 by Europe (but the measure extends until 2029), which is worth around 4 billion . Just as there is reason to include in these unspent 2014-20 funds also the billion for hiring incentives for young people and women. In short, we try to “shuffle” the cards (and the measures) a bit to try to reduce the damageor.

On work, but the same applies to the entire 2014-20 programming (as of December 31, Italy certified expenditure of 35 billion to the EU, 54% of the total 64.9 billion, after the reprogramming of React-EU , ed), «we are faced with a spending activity that is proceeding too slowly and we are worried about this – underlined the Uil confederal secretary, Ivana Veronese -. Leaving aside the “numbers” for a moment, the judgment must also and above all concern the quality of the expenditure. The logic of “spending a lot to spend” does not lead to improvements. Additional interventions are needed. And that they do not overlap with other ongoing initiatives, such as those envisaged by the Pnrr ».