EU funds, for Guidesi (Lombardy) management must remain regional

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - "If the European cohesion funds were to really pass from regional management to centralised management by the State, the end of the Regions would be decreed and, above all, there would be a brake on national economic growth, just think of the incidence of Lombardy on the national GDP". The Lombardy Region's Councillor for Economic Development, Guido Guidesi, raises the alarm regarding the possible reform of European funding, which is currently allocated directly to the regions. The issue concerns the next programming of the European multiannual budget 2028-2034, which the EU Commission should officially present in mid-July and on which the first discussions have begun. One third of the EU budget is now cohesion funds, which Brussels allocates to the regions. A first concern is that this figure already appears to be shrinking as a result of enlargement. Moreover, it could be further cut to finance European defence. The greatest risk, however, according to Lombardy, relates to the management of those funds, i.e. the shift from regional management to a national plan for each member state, which would then distribute them on the model of the NRP.

"Different governance, therefore national, would put a brake on the economies of the most productive regions and on services to citizens. For example, for Lombardy alone it would mean the loss of specific support to over 900,000 VAT numbers. If the country does not want to do without the positive economic influences of the most productive regions, such as Lombardy, it must allow these same regions to continue to have an impact on growth, on innovation, and this happens today thanks to the European resources managed by the regions. If this were no longer to happen, it is clear that it would hold back Lombardy and thus hold back the whole of Italy,' concluded the Lombardy head of Economic Development.