We return to speak urgently about European Single Fundthat is, a way to simplify the use of economic resources between EU Member States. At the forum in Masseria di Manduria on minister for European affairs Tommaso Foti He opened the discussion by immediately putting the question on the table. He explained that such a scheme would risk penalizing Italy, both as the resources would be distributed and for the future of agriculture.
The minister thus gave way to a debate that closely touches citizens and territories, making it clear how much the theme is not only technical but also deeply concrete for people’s lives.
The position of the Italian government on the European Single Fund
It is not the first time that the government is negatively exposed on the subject. The European Single Fund It is criticized because, eliminating resources dedicated to cohesion and PAC (common agricultural policy), would risk reduce the ability to support the most fragile regions and farmers, imposing uniform constraints that undermine flexibility and local development.
During his speech, Foti defined this one of the most urgent issues on which the government is trying to assert its voice in Brussels, illustrating to those present the repercussions of such an orientation on people and territories.
The minister then stressed that “there is a fairly evident split between countries that enjoy not only those resources”, because there would be a gap between those who receive greater benefits from community programs and those who pushes for new rules. Cohesion, he recalled, was born precisely to fill the economic and social distances within the most disadvantaged areas.
South and North: the internal distribution of funds
Foti recalled that today the distribution of European resources is designed to help above all the South, which receives about 80% of the funds leaving the remaining part to the center-north.
A choice, he explained, dictated by the need for reduce historical inequalities and bring southern infrastructures and services closer to the standards of the most developed regions. This targeted logic would risk jumping with a single European fund, which would flatten the distribution and would leave back those who need most targeted investments to fill the gaps.
What and who are the “frugal countries”
A passage of the intervention was dedicated to differences with the so -called frugal states, which would like to concentrate All resources in a single fund to be managed independently. Foti warned:
“There are different positions from the frugal countries that think of a single bottom within which each country decides how to use it”.
But who are these countries? Traditionally include:
- Austria;
- Denmark;
- Netherlands;
- Sweden.
In the past, Finland and other countries of the European northern Axis have also been accompanied, but the “Core” group is made up of the first four.
Risks for agricultural policy and national programming
Foti explained that if a unique background logic was also applied to the PAC, agricultural policies would risk being ungainted by a series of common objectives and constraints, reduce drastically the Italy’s ability to plan interventions tailor -made.
He then made it clear that Rome does not intend to give up its decision -making autonomy and will continue to defend a flexible programming and close to the needs of the territories.
