Sardinia: 50 per cent of resources programmed for 2021-2027. Objective inland areas

The objective is to counter the depopulation of inland areas and, at the same time, to support businesses with actions aimed at strengthening services. It is a game worth EUR 1.5 billion that the Sardinia Region is playing with the 2021-2027 European funds. On 9 May, the programming of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) was presented. Illustrating the scenario is Giuseppe Meloni, vice-president of the region and councillor for Programming and Budget. "Up to now, as the competent councillorship, we have programmed, through deliberative acts, about 50 per cent of the total financial endowment. A step forward that, as the executive representative points out, has to reckon with delays. "We must, moreover, take into account the fact that we are inheriting an objective delay, partly related to the fact that the Crp (regional programming centre) directorate-general has been vacant for too many years, and partly due to covid, a problem the latter of which has clearly affected all the regions of Europe,' he emphasises.

"In spite of this, we have completed the first payment request, also on the 2021/27 programming, amounting to 11.5 million. It is a small amount, but it allows us to make use of the 5 million pre-financing that the commission had allocated to us in 2022." Not only that: 'We should be one of the first ERDF managing authorities at national level to report expenditure on the new programming.

As for the programme, it is divided into six priorities ranging from Smart Competitiveness, Digital Transition, Green Transition, Sustainable Urban Mobility, Social and Integrated Sustainable Urban and Territorial Development. "We intend to confirm the programme's basic approach, also because it was born out of technical work with the European Commission, and to invest in these areas, particularly Digital Transition and Green Transition," Meloni adds. "However, compared to the past legislature, we intend to strengthen the sharing with the economic and social partnership of our Region, favouring a place-based, bottom-up approach to policies. The programme does not only belong to the Sardinian Region as an institution, it belongs to all Sardinians, who must be active players in its implementation and not just mere beneficiaries'.

As for priorities: 'One is to reduce depopulation. To do this, it is necessary to restore value to the territories, reducing the gap between inland and urban areas. Investing in the territories, especially in the most marginal ones, enhancing their potential and investing in the specificities of each territory from an environmental, cultural, landscape and socio-economic point of view and, at the same time, reducing their deficits, contributing to improving the quality of life of the population'.

It is the business world that is looking intently at the opportunity that European funds bring. Which, however, does not hide some perplexity. "What we are asking for is certainty in terms of programmes and timeframes," says Marco Santoru, director of Confindustria, "not least because the business world needs clear answers, especially on issues to which the development of our region is linked. These range from energy to infrastructure and services. "Manufacturing, if the energy knot is not untied, will continue to have difficulties in terms of development," he adds, "and there is also a need to intervene on infrastructure, we are thinking of rail transport, but also connections with inland areas and everything needed to relaunch production activity.