Cohesion, Italia shifts 4.7 billion to competitiveness

The reprogramming of the cohesion funds closes at EUR 34.6 billion and Italy takes second place, with an overall remodulation of EUR 7 billion. The results, illustrated yesterday in Brussels by European Commission Vice-President and Commissioner for Cohesion, Raffaele Fitto, refer to the mid-term review that was launched a year ago with the aim of shifting some of the resources of the 2021-2027 cycle to new strategic priorities, also in light of the war in Ukraine and the changed geopolitical context.

"The reprogrammed funds," Fitto said, "do not represent projections or commitments on paper: they are real resources that can already be used by Member States and regions. They reflect concrete decisions taken by looking at the territories and choosing where to invest for the future. This shows how cohesion policy can quickly adapt to new priorities while remaining anchored in territorial development,' he said. Several countries, "particularly in Northern and Eastern Europe, have allocated significant amounts to defence and security," Fitto highlighted, pointing out that the highest reprogrammings were made by "Poland with 8 billion, strongly oriented to defence, also because of its geographical location; by Italia with over 7 billion; then Spain with 3.2 billion; Portugal with 2.5 billion; Germany and Greece with almost 2 billion each.

Italia's 7 billion represents 16.7 per cent of the total 2021-2027 cohesion fund allocation. The programmes concerned - including ERDF, ESF+ and Just transition funds - were 35 (of which 7 national and 28 regional) out of a total of 48, the highest number among the EU countries. The largest revisions were proposed by Campania (EUR 881.1 million), Sicily (EUR 919.1 million) and the Ministry of Enterprise and Industry for the Research, Innovation and Competitiveness programme (EUR 858.6 million).

With just under EUR 4.7 billion, Italia is - along with Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Belgium - also the country that has allocated the largest share to the competitiveness objective, which includes investments in critical technologies and industries to reduce dependence on non-EU suppliers. And it is the country that has focused most on housing, with 1.1 billion for investments in affordable housing. The other portions of the remit concern water (629 million), energy (396) and defence (248). For the Minister for European Affairs, the NRP and Cohesion Policies, Tommaso Foti, the Italian choices reflect 'fundamental investments because they combine the traditional vocation of cohesion policy, aimed at reducing territorial disparities, with the new strategic priorities determined by the rapidly changing international context'.

In total, a total of 186 programmes came in from the 25 participating Member States for reshaping by the end of 2025. The largest share of the reshuffle went to the competitiveness objective (15.2 billion), followed by defence (11.9), housing (3.3), water (3.1) and energy (1.2).