For over 79 billion of cohesion funds, the management rules are changing. It took much longer than expected but in the end the reconnaissance of the resources that had been established by a decree law of 2019 was completed and the resolution of the Cipess, the inter-ministerial committee for economic planning and the Sustainable Development.
The Fund for Development and Cohesion (FSC) has the task of financing, with additional national resources, interventions aimed at territorial rebalancing and is destined for 80% to the South. To try to improve dramatic spending performance, which for the cycle 20214-2020 mark just 7% of payments with respect to the programmed resources, the idea is to hinge on each administration holding resources – ministries, regions or metropolitan cities – a specific «Development and cohesion plan». According to the Cipess resolution, the new plans must contain interventions in 12 thematic areas: research and innovation, digitization, competitiveness and businesses, energy, environment and natural resources, culture, transport and mobility, urban requalification, work and employability, social and health, education and training, administrative capacity.
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The figure of 79.4 billion is the result of a long survey launched by the Cohesion Agency, led by Paolo Esposito since last April, and by the Department for Cohesion Policies, led by Ferdinando Ferrara, on the basis of Article 44 of Legislative Decree 34/2019 and relating to the programming cycles 2000-2006, 2007-2013 and 2014-2020. Just under 32 billion are headed by ministries, over 47.5 billion by the regions and plans for metropolitan cities will soon be added. The objective of the operation is the creation of a single plan “to replace the current multiple planning documents, in order to ensure a unitary coordination by each administration, as well as an acceleration of the expenditure of the interventions financed from the resources of the Fund”. Over the years about 900 implementation instruments have been stratified, mainly framework program agreements but also old action and cohesion plans, development pacts, complementary operational programs. All with jagged and disordered governance rules. The new scheme envisages a total of 42 instruments, of which 30 have already been approved by Cipess. For the management of each of the 42 plans there is a responsible authority, a monitoring committee and in some situations a certification body. The new resources of the 2021-2027 cycle approved with the 2021 budget law, for a multi-year amount of 50 billion, will also be linked to the new mechanism.
As expected for several years, since it was called the Fund for underutilized areas, the task of the ministry for the South will be to safeguard its territorial bond and prevent its use in an “ATM” style. A clause has been included in the reorganization according to which any financial rescheduling of the plans, which involve changes in the division between Center-North and South, will only be possible with a justified decision by the FSC control room and subsequent approval by the Cipess. Extremely topical issue, as demonstrated by the 700 million FSC quota withdrawn in Parliament from the National Complementary Fund and addressed to various destinations. In the final version of the amendment, the ministry led by Mara Carfagna obtained that it was put in black and white that the resources will in any case be assigned by Cipess, subject to the opinion of the State-Regions Conference and in compliance with the territorial allocation percentage. Few are under the illusion, however, that party assaults on the rich cake of the 2021-27 cycle will not be repeated. For this reason, the Southern Ministry intends to speed up programming in the coming months to try to lock the safe.