Fitto: 'Use of cohesion funds voluntary, only in Italia there is a useless controversy'

No shifting of resources, but the opportunity for Regions and Member States, to be activated on a voluntary basis, to be able to remodel the resources of the cohesion policy funds and the Just Transition Fund to counter the effects of the energy crisis. From Lecce, where he took part in the Energy Festival, the European Commission's executive vice-president in charge of Cohesion and Reforms, Raffaele Fitto, returned to the proposal, set out in black and white in a letter sent in recent days to the relevant ministers of the 27 member states, to use that allocation to offset the rising cost of energy. "The letter is an opportunity that we are giving, creating the conditions to be able to adjust the current cohesion programmes," he explained. "We are not shifting any resources: we are giving an opportunity to the regions and governments, which are responsible for the programmes of their respective competences.

Fitto then recalled that we have just completed a revision in which the same governments and regions 'participated, with the same method, without any controversy. We have completed a revision of 35 billion at European level, Italy has used it for 7 billion'. The path, therefore, is marked out. And the former minister said he was astonished by 'a polemic that I do not understand'. "I have sent the letter to 27 ministers,' he added, 'and in the next few hours it will reach all the presidents of the regions. Governors who, however, did not fail to respond to his words. For Michele De Pascale, president of Emilia-Romagna, the EU's invitation 'is a mockery for Italia', while that of Tuscany, Eugenio Giani, urged not to use the resources for other purposes. M5S leader Giuseppe Conte also intervened: 'Hands off the cohesion funds, tax the extra profits. A path, the latter, then recalled by the secretary of the PD, Elly Schlein, who, in relaunching the proposal, addressed a message to the premier. "He makes a battle to suspend the Ets, but he does not tell us where he has used the 9 billion he has accrued with those Ets since he has been at Palazzo Chigi. Why doesn't he use them to support small and medium-sized enterprises to put in photovoltaic panels or increase energy efficiency?"

In short, the controversy has continued despite the reassurances provided by Fitto, who then also recalled the other possible 'leg' of the remodulation, the NRP, with respect to which 'the Commission has given the Member States a last chance to review, setting the deadline at 31 May and providing a few additional days to complete the assessments'.

The road chosen, however, by Italia to secure further margins of manoeuvre on energy is that of the variance on which it is waiting for a response from Brussels, which, Fitto said, "is working to understand how to find an appropriate solution". In the meantime, however, next Wednesday the EU Commission will adopt the spring package of the European semester: this is the annual appointment in which the EU executive publishes the economic assessments of the 27 and the country-specific recommendations. This package will be adopted by the EU Council, normally in July. On the fiscal front, the expectations are quite definite and for Italia the excessive deficit procedure should be confirmed, in light of the bar at 3.1% of GDP in 2025, while any improvement in the figure will be assessed in the autumn.

As for the other games launched by the government, starting with the Ets system, which the executive has asked to suspend, an initial juncture is set for 24 June when there will be, Fitto explained, 'an orientation debate on the possibility of launching a review' of the mechanism.