Failure to involve local authorities in the preparation and subsequent stages of implementation of national recovery plans by central governments risks weakening the impact of the plans themselves and compromising their effectiveness, given the “crucial role” of local authorities ” in making investments and implementing reforms ». Not only that: excluding regions and municipalities from the construction and implementation of recovery plans, reserving them only the role of actuators, “entails the risk of not making the most of the possible synergies between the Recovery plan and the European cohesion policy” which it conveys. in the territories the structural funds, “overlaps and a displacement effect”.
These are the worried assessments contained in a study by the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), which represents the local authorities of the 27 member states in Brussels. The study examines the recovery plans (Pnrr) of eight countries (Italy, Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Poland, Romania and Spain) which show a widespread lack of coordination with local and regional authorities: in the consultation Italy is even last for the involvement of regions and cities. “Italy does not dedicate a specific section to the consultation process,” reads the report. “The introduction only mentions the fact that the PNRR has been discussed with local authorities, civil society and political parties”.
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Furthermore, like France, Italy does not specify the role of local authorities in the different phases of the plan, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, but merely says that “they will be part of the process”. The Italian Pnrr only states that it will carry out the reforms together with local authorities, taking into account their competences. For monitoring, they will have to send the data to the Ministry of Economy which will then aggregate them.
The Committee of the Regions promotes the Italian Recovery with full marks on the analysis of the problems of the public administration, both national and local, as well as for the description of the reforms and the measures to modernize and digitize it. Failed, on this, France and Spain.
Among the criticisms expressed by the CoR is the absence in the plan of “a detailed quantitative analysis of territorial disparities and challenges at local and regional level, but only mentioned only from a national point of view”.