EU budget and cohesion: regions cut out of negotiations ask Meloni and Foti for a meeting
There is growing concern among the regions about the way in which the next European Union multiannual budget (MFF or MFF) 2028-2034 is being drawn up, which - with the structure proposed by the Commission and the grouping of resources in a single fund - risks relegating them to the sidelines, both in the preparatory and management phases. After several appeals to the government last autumn that went largely unheeded, in recent days the Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces has asked the government to "resume a systematic dialogue on the future of cohesion policy and to reach a clear position of Italia" in the European Council.
On Wednesday, the European Parliament's Budget Committee is expected to approve the negotiating position on the next MFF. By the end of the month, barring any surprises, the vote in plenary is expected. "In view of the progress of the negotiation phase and the government's failure to respond to all the regions' requests for dialogue and involvement, the Conference of the Regions and Autonomous Provinces (....) is once again requesting a meeting with Prime Minister Meloni and Minister Foti to share the state of play in the negotiations on the regulatory proposals and to find out the position taken by the Italian government. The request, submitted to the government by the president of the Conference of Regions, Massimiliano Fedriga, was unanimously approved and cannot fail to cause embarrassment to the executive, which at the beginning of the current European legislature had exulted at the assignment of the cohesion portfolio precisely to the Italian commissioner, Raffaele Fitto (Fratelli d'Italia, the premier's party).
In the document, the regions also call for "the timely establishment of a political and technical discussion table on the negotiation and definition of the National and Regional Plan for Italy, also reaffirming the need for a cohesion policy that can maintain its current implementation mode based on shared management through regional chapters".
The round table must serve to "guarantee the structured participation of the regions in the formation of the Italia position", also "through the systematic sharing of compromise texts" and to define an Italia model of governance of the National Plans that confirms the role of the Regions and Autonomous Provinces as Managing Authorities of the regional chapters", making "the provision of regional chapters with certain and transparent financial allocations mandatory".
This is to say how much the regions, which until the current programming period had been direct interlocutors with the European institutions on cohesion policy, have so far been kept practically in the dark about the negotiations and risk in the future to be mere executors of programmes and decisions defined centrally.
