(Finance) – The resources of the structural funds intended for Sicily are those most at risk of disengagement in the 2014-2020 programming cycle of Cohesion Policy. This was revealed by the analysis of the data available on the European Commission’s cohesion portal. For Sicily they are missing, between ERDF and FSE, as well 1.6 billion euros.
In order not to lose European resources, our country should absorb the funds still not spent or accounted for by 31 December 2023. But, as of June 2023, Sicily had spent and accounted for only 61.7% of the Regional Development Fund (ERDF) – approximately 2.6 billion out of 4.2 – and 65.4% of the European Social Fund (ESF), which amounts in total to approximately 820 million euros.
The Region has seen very slow progress, increasing spending only slightly a few percentage points in the last two years and for this reason it could be forced to disengage resources that will not be allocated in time.
Meanwhile, yesterday Svimez in the hearing in the Senate and House Committees on the implementation of the PNRR noted that out of 15.9 billion euros of PNRR interventions defunded based on the revision of the Plan drawn up by the government, approximately 46% concern projects in the South and “not all were reported as critical in implementation” specifying that “not all the interventions subject to defunding were identified as critical in the Report of last May”.
In particular, out of the total defunded measures equal to 15.9 billion, Svimez estimates that those involving interventions located in the southern regions amount to 7.6 billion, or almost 48%