EU budget: proposal for €134 billion in loans for cohesion and agriculture emerges

Another call – and not just from Italy – is for an increase in the minimum threshold set aside for social spending. “The reduction in resources for social spending is a problem and we are working hard to try to amend the initial proposal. The 14% set aside for social spending is too little, not least because the phrase ‘at least 14%’ in reality risks becoming a maximum limit,” said Massimo Temussi, Director-General of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, at a workshop organised by Intellera Consulting on the challenges of the new European programming.

The regulations set to be introduced under the new programming period will substantially alter the way European funds are managed in Member States and across regions. A key issue concerns governance and the influence of regions, which risk being sidelined, as happened with the NRRP. “One cannot help but take note of the clear stance adopted by the Commission, which the Italian government has fully endorsed and to which the regional presidents have aligned themselves,” said Vincenzo Falgares, Director-General for Planning for the Region of Sicily, not without controversy.

But it is not just governance that is a cause for concern – with an increasingly top-down and centralised approach, focused on Rome and Brussels, featuring a single plan per country and few priorities, and more resources managed directly by the European Commission. The so-called PNRR method, which involves funding linked not to actual costs and expenditure but to the achievement of targets, is “a bit of a leap of faith” for the authorities managing regional programmes, admitted Elena Calistri, who manages the Social Fund for Tuscany. “We’re not afraid of the work. But how will civil servants respond to this new system and the two levels of oversight” by the national and European audit authorities? “It’s a disruptive challenge, a radical change. Therefore, a ‘truth-finding exercise’ will be needed on what the Italian and European Courts of Auditors will require,” according to Roberto Trainito, a partner at Intellera, who, together with Luciano Monti, a lecturer in European Union Politics at Luiss, presented a study on the impact the new European programming will have on Italy. With a healthy dose of optimism, Monti estimates that, in 2028–2034, Italia’s total allocation for cohesion and agriculture, including the debt quota, could reach almost €140 billion.

And to those such as Gianni Bocchieri, head of the training department for the Piedmont region, who expressed concern about the consequences of the new structure in terms of administrative management and financial flows, Monti suggested, in a way, fully embracing the ‘PNRR method’, working in advance on the interim targets in order to secure the disbursement of instalments and avoid having to resort to the banking or insurance system. First, however, it will be necessary to understand whether and what negotiating powers the regions will have in the “new world” that lies ahead.