Because the Italian React-Eu is slower than other states
The in-depth study by Enrico Martial
There is a lot of talk about the Pnrr (or Recovery Plan), but a good test of the Draghi government on European funds is REACT-EU, the urgent program activated by the European Commission as a response to the Covid 19 crisis. billions in many years, it is 37.5 billion for 2021 alone at 2018 prices. The largest beneficiary is Italy, with 10.7 billion, together with Spain with 10.2 billion. The name itself evokes the purpose, a reaction to the most manifest damage of the pandemic. The allocations are concentrated on the countries in which, when it was conceived, a stronger socio-economic impact was detected: the approximately 10 billion of Italy and Spain should in fact be compared with the 2.9 billion of France and the 1.7 billion of the Germany (again for 2021 and at 2018 prices).
We wanted an easy implementation tool, for example using the European programs (in the acronym POR and PON) already in progress in the member countries, or with a new dedicated program. Since each country has experienced the crisis with specific characteristics, good freedom has been left on contents and without strict thematic constraints, even in the wake of digital-environmental transitions and resilience, therefore with investments capable of "regenerating" work and activities, for example with innovation. Then there was the principle of regional and social partnership.
Already at the origins of the REACT-EU regulation of 23 December 2020, the Commissioner had underlined these criteria in a letter of 29 July to every national minister, for us to Giuseppe Provenzano, head of the dicastery for the South and territorial cohesion. Resources must " clearly focus on the geographical areas whose economy has been most damaged by the pandemic and which are less equipped to react on their own ", while maintaining a reference also for the less developed and outermost areas (such as the Azores or the Canary Islands). In addition to the ecological and digital transition and the recommendations by country, the letter reaffirmed the principle of partnership, that is, the involvement of the Regions and civil society organizations.
CENTRALIZATION AND MIDDAY IN ITALY
In Italy, on the other hand, the yellow-red government has chosen state centralization, favored by the State-Regions controversy and by a relative weakness of regional capacities. Furthermore, the distribution of resources has focused on the south rather than on the areas most affected by the pandemic. In mid-January 2021, the Italian program scheme had raised some limited protests from the Regions, which finally resigned themselves to being excluded from the elaboration and management. Net of the 500 million (which is quite a lot) allocated to the functioning of the program (about 5%), after having increased the budget with a couple of billion of state funds, of the 13 billion of REACT-EU, 67% would have gone to the South. , that is 8.7bn.
The measures were designed to be managed by the Roman ministries. The funds for taxation benefits for work (4bn, but the initial proposal was 7bn), the interventions for the energy transition and the circular economy (800mln), the exemption from university taxes with Isee were all allocated to the South. up to 13 thousand euros and scholarships for southern university students (128 million), smart grids (180 million).
There was also a stratagem, which was very much in vogue in the Italian programming of European funds. For healthcare, of the 13 billion of REACT-EU, 1.7 billion were expected, of which 400 million for vaccines and 1.1 billion for extraordinary personnel expenses during the pandemic. These were expenses that were already accountable: therefore, if on the one hand they declared to put a couple of billion more, on the other they included – legitimately – health expenses already carried out or financed. The (political) advantage was to include a "health" item (recommended by Brussels) in a national program which in practice did not finance it because it had already done so.
IN SPAIN, GERMANY AND FRANCE: REGIONS AND PANDEMICS
In Spain, in accordance with the indications of the Commission, of the 10.2 billion the expenditure was instead allocated for 10 billion to the Regions (the Autonomous Communities), and distributed with territorial criteria linked to the pandemic similar to those chosen by Brussels for the distribution between states. The sums are attributed for 2/3 in proportion to the impact of the Covid crisis on the wealth of each region, while the remaining third is assigned on the negative trend of employment, partly considering that of young people. In this way, of the 10 billion for 2021, 25% was allocated to the regions of Madrid and Catalonia, which were most affected by the pandemic, albeit more economically developed.
In Germany, with similar criteria, the distribution of resources takes place at the level of the Länder: for example, of the 1.4 billion for 2021 of REACT-EU, 202 million go to Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen). The role of the regions is also recognized in France: in a hearing in the Senate on 12 June 2020, Amélie de Montchalin, then Secretary of State for European Affairs, stressed that REACT-EU was going " along the path of the regions " and that spending had to be concentrated where the pandemic had done the most damage.
URGENCY AS AN ITALIAN CRITERIA
If the improvement method set out by Minister Daniele Franco in the parliamentary hearing on 8 March last is applied, there will be no decisive discontinuity in the updated text of the Italian REACT-EU with respect to the draft of the Conte-Boccia-Provenzano government. On the other hand, as a partial justification, in addition to administrative continuity, the criterion of urgency must be remembered. In fact, if in Italy everything seems suspended and the REACT-EU seems a work still to be done, a little marginal compared to the greater resources of the PNRR, in other European countries they are already implementing, after having anticipated the funds.
For example, on January 14, 2021, the Haut-de-France Region published a call for a management expert from the REACT-EU program. In the Region of South-Western Finland (the capital is Turku, 193,000 inhabitants), a REACT-EU call for aid of up to 50,000 euros for small and medium-sized enterprises, for digital, environmental or innovation projects, has already been launched since 5 March.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/perche-il-react-eu-italiano-va-a-rilento-rispetto-ad-altri-stati/ on Sat, 13 Mar 2021 06:28:22 +0000.