Panorama

Emilia-Romagna relaunches
its commitment to building
a better future
Stefano Bonaccini, Regional President of Emilia-Romagna,
explains how his region is making the most of EU funding
to invest in environmental, economic, and social sustainability.
Emilia-Romagna has demonstrated
its ability to use EU funds well.
In your opinion, what factors have
influenced this ability?
There are at least two essential factors.
The first is the ability of administration
to allocate funding based on
the requirements and potential of
a territory with pragmatism, promptness
and the commitment to achieve.
The second is the capacity of the territory
itself – the municipalities,
visitors and even individuals – to seize
opportunities, be it a selection process
for innovative production processes or
a higher education course.
In Emilia-Romagna, these two aspects
have grown together, programme after
programme. But there is also a third
vital factor: social dialogue. In 2015,
immediately after the approval of the
2014-2020 ERDF and ESF Operational
Programmes, we signed the Employment
Pact with all entities in the
region. More than 50 organisations,
including employer and union associations,
local administrations, the third
sector, universities and schools, systematically
shared the planning of
Emilia-Romagna development and
Cohesion policies. They focused on
priorities and actions to achieve a
common objective: to increase the
added value of the regional economy
by creating quality employment. Today,
the resources from the 2014-2020
programme have been entirely committed,
and unemployment – before
the pandemic – had fallen from 9 % to
5 % over five years. We use 100 % of
the European funds and I would
always say that if it were possible to
have more, we would spend more.
These funds will form one of the pillars
on which we will base the relaunch
plan in the coming months.
Work on the 2021-2027
programming has been ongoing for
some time. What priorities have been
set for Emilia-Romagna?
Today’s priority, in light of the COVID-
19 pandemic, is first and foremost
relaunching the region. To do this, we
very much welcome the approval of
our request to re-strategise the European
Structural Funds which have
already been allocated to the new
needs created by the coronavirus crisis.
Together with Tuscany, we are the
first Italian region, and among the first
in Europe, to have obtained authorisation
to use the flexibility granted by
the EU Coronavirus Response Investment
Initiative (CRII). Therefore, after
lockdown, we will use the first
EUR 8.3 million to finance industrial
projects and research centres for innovative
solutions. Health safety will
become a new area of industry in
Emilia-Romagna. Recognition by the
Commission further increases the certainty
of being on the correct and virtuous
road for definitively leaving
behind the emergency that has
affected our lives in recent months, by
using additional resources.
Looking ahead to 2021-2027, we will
have to tackle new social and territorial
weaknesses and redouble our
efforts to achieve a development
model somewhat different from that
of the past. The new European fund
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