Tender details
The public tender, which is part of a broader national strategy for the redevelopment of small municipalities, has gathered 2,638 instancesrelating to 3,359 Municipalitiesof which 2,261 were submitted by individual Municipalities, 305 by Municipalities in agreement and 72 by Unions of Municipalities.
This demonstrates the importance of the initiative, which has seen significant participation from local administrations, often having difficulty finding the resources necessary to implement development and redevelopment projects.
The Evaluation Commission, established pursuant to theArticle 7, paragraph 1of the Call, worked rigorously to select the most deserving projects.
Of the 2,638 projects submitted, 1,179 were deemed worthy of funding. This represents approximately 45% of total applicationsa fact that underlines the high quality level of the proposals received. However, the available resources at the moment they allow immediate financing only 144 projectsfor a total of approximately 172 million euros.
UNCEM’s criticisms
Despite the step forward represented by the publication of the Prime Ministerial Decree, the National Union of Mountain Municipalities, Communities and Entities (UNCEM) has raised criticisms regarding the results of the Call.
In particular, UNCEM highlighted that, although 144 projects were financed with 172 million euros, out of over 2,638 candidate projects, almost 1,500 projects were excluded from the ranking. The total number of eligible projects is in fact 1,179, leaving a large number of municipalities without the necessary support.
UNCEM expressed concern, wondering whether the exclusion of so many projects is indicative of a lack of planning capacity on the part of local governments: “So the Municipalities are no longer capable of planning? Everything to be thrown away? We ask ourselves and await answers”.
One of the most relevant criticisms of UNCEM concerns the failure to admit of Unions of Municipalities, Mountain Unions and Mountain Communities among the funded projects.
This exclusion, according to UNCEM, “completely betrays the spirit of law 158/2017 from which the tender was born”, which was conceived to promote collaboration between local authorities in economic and project planning. TheArticle 13 of the law, in fact, underlines the importance of shared and integrated planningwhile the call for tenders, in its application, seems to favor an individualistic approach, in contrast with the cooperative logic that should characterize initiatives for small municipalities.
Financial resources and future prospects
The overall requirement requested by the 1,179 eligible projects amounts to approximately 842 million eurosa figure that far exceeds current financial availability.
The Ministry of the Interior, which manages the resources of the Call, has made available approximately 172 million euros (171,779,202), sufficient to finance only a part of the selected projects.
There ranking of the eligible projects will remain valid for three years from the date of its publication in the Official Journal of the Italian Republic. This means that, if additional financial resources become available over the next few years, it will be possible to progressively finance the projects included in the ranking but currently not fundable due to lack of funds.
