Ferreira: “Cohesion policy works elsewhere, in Italy it reveals the country’s problems”
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A study by Istat a few weeks ago pointed the finger at the effectiveness of cohesion policy in Italy: “Twenty years of lack of convergence” of poor regions towards the EU average. We talked about it with Elisa Ferreira, European Commissioner for Regional Policies.
Commissioner, what is your idea of the effectiveness of cohesion policy, an instrument for redistributing wealth between territories?
The eighth cohesion report published last year shows that disparities in terms of GDP per capita in the EU have decreased over the past two decades. This is largely due to the convergence of Eastern European regions. In the “old” 15 EU member states, economic convergence has been much slower and has started to decrease since the onset of the financial crisis in 2009. Many Italian regions are among those that have recorded divergences, a trend which also emerges from the Istat report. It is important to note that all Italian regions have lost ground compared to the EU average
What does this mean?
It means that the decline affects the whole country, not just the southern regions. We cannot therefore conclude that cohesion policy has failed. Furthermore, cohesion policy represents, on average, 0.3% of Italy’s annual GDP. It is not a negligible figure but from a macroeconomic point of view it cannot remedy a prolonged period of low growth due to various factors. Cohesion policy alone cannot guide the development of an entire region or country.
What is needed, in addition to European resources?
Domestic investment plays a key role. But public investment in Italy has declined over time. The share of the South of total investments in Italy has dropped from 38% in 2000 to 33% in 2023. Cohesion policy funding only partially compensates for the national investment deficit
What else do you think didn’t work in Italy?
One of the critical aspects to be significantly improved in public spending policies in Italy, particularly in the South, is the ability of beneficiaries and intermediate bodies to plan investments, build project lines and carry out tender procedures. If they don’t have the technical, administrative and financial capacity to take on this task, it is very difficult to make the policy work. Central administrations have an important role in terms of coordination, monitoring, reporting and management of funding instruments. But this must go hand in hand with the regional approach of cohesion policy and empower regional and local authorities to design and implement investment strategies. This is why Cohesion Policy support to Italy 2021-2027 contains a massive €1.2 billion program of administrative capacity building and technical assistance that focuses entirely on beneficiaries and implementing bodies in the South.
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