The second Monitoring Committee of the 2021-2027 CapCoe National Programme (NP) was held today in Rome. The session was opened by Michele Palma, Head of the Cohesion Policy Department at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, who illustrated the new NP’s regulatory and organisational framework, resulting from its management shift (as of 1 December) from the Territorial Cohesion Agency to the Department itself.
Opening speeches were delivered by Nicola De Michelis (Director General of DG Regio IV of the European Commission), Riccardo Monaco (acting Director General of the Territorial Cohesion Agency) and Carla Cosentino (NP Managing Authority).
Nicola De Michelis emphasised the CapCoe’s importance in improving Cohesion Policy implementation in Italy, and recalled the need to measure the impact of Programmes addressed to Southern Regions, notably in terms of implementation performance and expenditure performance.
Riccardo Monaco highlighted the CapCoe’s innovative features and its Cohesion Policy-focussed strengthening action. He invited the PAs involved in the NP implementation to ensure maximum cooperation to achieve the targets pursued.
Carla Cosentino provided an overview of the NP implementation progress, focussing on: launching the territorial Service Centre, support for projects under the Administrative Regeneration Plans, and ad-hoc training actions.
The Regional Action Plans were successfully approved by the Monitoring Committee. Drawn up by the NP Managing Authority (MA) in agreement with the regional MAs of the 7 Less Developed Regions and the European Commission, the Plans are functional to implementing Priority 1, the NP main priority in financial terms based on the Financing Not Linked to Costs mechanism (i.e., financing is instead connected to the achievement of specific milestones).
It was essential to promptly ensure this approval, in light of the stringent timing of several interventions linked, on their turn, to a subsequent necessary step: the NP reprogramming. On this point, the MA illustrated the main points of the proposal to ensure consistency with approved Regional Action Plans’ contents, and the independent evaluator’s analyses on the Plans and the new organisational structure of the Cohesion Policy Department. The reprogramming proposal – as pointed out by the Commission – should not affect the strengthening ambitions, notably for local PAs, entrusted to the NP.
The discussion also focussed on the Call for Expression of Interest published yesterday, which launched the first phase of the extraordinary recruitment plan for Cohesion Policy supported by the #CapCoe based on the so-called “Decreto Sud” (Law No. 162 of 13 November 2023). Addressed to Municipalities, Unions of Municipalities, Regional Administrations, Provinces and Metropolitan Cities of the Less Developed Regions, the Call aims to gather information on the needs for resources and professional profiles and lay the groundwork for the subsequent launch of a selection.
Several partners (ANCI, UPI and trade unions) confirmed their attention and expressed their interest in participating in an in-depth group to be launched soon.
22 November 2023