Calabria is one of the last, if not the last, among the European regions in almost all domains. Corruption and institutional indigence are rampant. There is no accountability whatsoever. Even the Ombudsman, who should have been operating years ago, is not nominated yet. Citizens’ rights are daily trampled upon. For the ordinary citizen it is simply humiliating and costly in terms of living standards, respect for legality and the Rule of Law. This is happening with the active complicity of the Italian State and successive governments, which in the most archaic and questionable fashion find this situation ideal to control its Southern territories which would otherwise attempt to exercise their sacred democratic rights.
Here are some strong reasons why the EU Commission should intervene to enforce accountability.
1 ) Despite the endemic under-development, the Regional government of Calabria is plainly unable to plan for the allocation of EU Funds. Lately, it has been caught copying and pasting parts of similar documents developed in different and very dissimilar Regions, like Lombardy. See this (use https://www.deepl.com/translator if needed):
« Consiglio regionale, è subito polemica sul Por “copia-incolla”. Ed è il trionfo del “fuori sacco” » Il Pd all’attacco: «Gravissimo che si riproponga lo stesso testo già ritirato». La maggioranza replica: «Non è vero». E fioccano le pratiche “last minute”, Pubblicato il: 25/06/2021 – 15:38 https://www.corrieredellacalabria.it/2021/06/25/consiglio-regionale-e-subito-polemica-sul-por-copia-incolla-ed-e-il-trionfo-del-fuori-sacco/
2 ) The context in which such shameful governmental theatrics happen is the chronic inability of Italy, and even more of Calabria, to properly and productively use the allocated European Funds. See these:
a ) « Fondi europei: finora speso solo il 23 %, quasi tutto va al Sud »,Valentina Conte, Su oltre 75 miliardi di risorse ne abbiamo utilizzate poco più di 17. L’Italia versa ogni anno a Bruxelles 15 miliardi e ne prende 9, https://www.repubblica.it/economia/2019/05/26/news/fondi_europei_finora_speso_solo_il_23_quasi_tutto_va_al_sud-227189934 /
b ) « LA CALABRIA NON SA SPENDERE I FONDI UE », EURISPES: HA RINUNCIATO A 1,125 MILIARDI », Pubblicato il 7 Settembre 2020 , Redazione, https://calabria.live/la-calabria-non-sa-spendere-i-fondi-ue-eurispes-ha-rinunciato-a-1125-miliardi/
3 ) Most Municipalities, like my own, San Giovanni in Fiore, are similarly institutionally indigent and are quite simply unable to show the least respect for the ordinary citizens and even less for the democratic, constructive and peaceful pressure groups.
One case in point concerns the abusive treatment our Comitato Cittadino per il Lavoro Dignitoso – CCLD – had to endure since 2016 and even today.
For instance, our CCLD tried to propose a sustainable if modest path to local development based on the rational use of EU Funds. In the end, the CCLD members, all of them long-term unemployed citizens capable and willing to work, were asked by the Region and by our Municipality to create a cooperative in order to participate in a forestry project derived from one of the many projects presented by the CCLD. 309 972,20 Euros were originally allocated by the Region. The Municipality had the task to develop the project and to put it up for public adjudication. The project was so miserably conceived that it had to be modified at least 5 times – mostly in response to our questions – and, in the end, the due date arrived. However, not only the project was not ready, but no one had even thought to include in it the trees that were supposed to be planted. The CCLD is left to suppose that all these useless modifications had a cost since the last amount that would have been adjudicated for that project was 236 620,00 Euros, that is 73 352, 20 Euros less than the original amount.
If this were not shameful enough, we must underline that the CCLD is unable to obtain the least answer from the Region or the Municipality when it asks :
a ) That the long-term unemployed citizens who formed the cooperative as requested by the Region and by the Municipality be reimbursed the 8 200,00 Euros they did spent for that purpose. In effect, for naught since the project has never been completed and opened to adjudication;
b ) That the Region and the Municipality duly informs the CCLD and all the citizens as to where did the remaining 236 620.00 Euros allocated to the failed project did end up. I wonder if the Court of Auditors will care to find out.
c ) Why was the project conceived to require the OG 13 specification – i.e. the anti-mafia clearing – when not a single enterprise, except the cooperative created by the unemployed, can apparently use it in the San Giovanni in Fiore territory? (My own interpretation is that this is one of the main reasons why available EU funds are not used properly and too often returned. It seems that the institutional preference goes to smaller amounts that can be allocated without any anti-mafia clearing …)
The EU Commission should equally note that neither the Municipality, nor the Region, nor the Ministry of the Interior care to provide the due answer. There is zero accountability here. This situation is worse than that experienced in any Fourth World country … Indeed, people who dare ask questions are systematically and cynically discredited in the purest police-mafia style (1). Meanwhile, the EU Commission should also note that the Ombudsman office is inexistent. Although its institution is mandated by law, the prevailing and transversal attitude here seems to be that there is no use for it since it would not know where to start …!
All the documents concerning this failed project and the CCLD are available here: http://rivincitasociale.altervista.org/category/comitato-cittadino-per-il-lavoro-dignitoso/
The letter, which was addressed to the Ministry of the Interior and which, so far, was left without an answer, is provided in the Annex below.
4 ) The EU Commission should also look into the use made in various Regions of the EU funds allocated for unemployed training and formation. These programs devised for Northern Europe, where the rate of participation to the labor market is still high, have no bearing whatsoever for a Region like Calabria, where the rate of participation – NOT of unemployment … – was around 40 % before the Sars-CoV-2 crisis.
In Italy, and particularly in the mafia ridden South where OG 13 specifications are scarce at best, a really juicy but useless formation business has developed. The least the EU Commission could do to remedy this harmful and indecent situation would be to demand that the private enterprises offering these courses as well as their Regions of origin, be held responsible. First, they should mandatorily proceed with a careful study of the opportunities offered by the local labor market; second, they should insure that at least 60 % of their trainees are effectively reintegrated in the labor market once they have completed their courses. Failing that, the funds would have to be reimbursed at least in proportion to the still unemployed but trained persons. These funds could then be used in a more productive fashion, in modest but cumulative and sustainable projects that could induce a real and virtuous local development, such as the CCLD had proposed.
In conclusion, let us only say that all these unaccountable, undemocratic and dysfunctional institutions and peoples are highly financed and paid with public funds, at levels that have no relations whatsoever to the general state of poverty which they inflict on our Region, Magna Grecia, which once was one of the main cradle of civilisation …
Paul De Marco,
Former professor of International Relations – International Political Economy
Annex: Letter to the Ministry of the interior. May 27, 2021
Il Comitato Cittadino per il Lavoro Dignitoso
(Prof. Paolo De Marco, portavoce del CCLD
Cell: 389 494 7265)
Data : 27 maggio 2021
Oggetto: Richiesta informazione.
Ministero dell’Interno
Osservatorio sulla finanza e la contabilità degli Enti locali.
Repubblica italiana.
Gentile Signora,
Egregio Signore,
Con le sue lotte pacifiche, civili e costruttive sin dal mese di febbraio 2016, il nostro CCLD permise al nostro Comune di San Giovanni in Fiore di ottenere oltre 1 milione di euro per 230 corsi di formazione destinati ai disoccupati e inoccupati e 309 972.2 euro per uno progetto Misura 8.1. I fondi furono effettivamente attributi dalla Regione al nostro Comune.
I 230 corsi di formazione hanno finalmente iniziato il 24 maggio 2021 dopo varie nostre richieste. Il progetto Misura 8.1 invece non è andato avanti. Ad oggi, nessuno nel Comune di San Giovanni in Fiore, Città che rischia nuovamente il dissesto come ben sa la Corte di Conti, oppure nella Regione, degna risponderci quando facciamo una domanda cittadina semplice: Dove sono andati questi fondi?
Dato che nessuno vuole rispondere, cosa totalmente contraria alla trasparenza dovuta da parte delle amministrazioni pubbliche, abbiamo deciso chiedere un consiglio all’Osservatorio, facendo notare che il Difensore civico, figura istituzionale capace di mediare senza antagonizzare nessuno, non è mai stato nominato nella nostra Regione.(1) Perciò a chi dobbiamo chiedere?
Per il dettaglio della vicenda rimando ai documenti disponibili a questo link : http://rivincitasociale.altervista.org/lettera-pubblica-alla-sindaca-succurro-3-marzo-2021/ .
Cordiali saluti,
Paolo De Marco, per il CCLD
1 ) Quale la situazione attuale dei Difensori Civici in Calabria ?
“La Regione Calabria (pur avendo previsto la figura istituzionale del Difensore Civico, figura che fu istituita con la Legge Regionale 16 gennaio 1985, n. 4 portante il titolo “Istituzione del difensore civico presso la Regione Calabria”) a tutt’oggi non ha mai provveduto alla relativa nomina” – queste le parole del Dott. Ruggiero Riefolo, attualmente Difensore Nazionale della Sovranità Popolare e Referente di Civicrazia per la Regione Calabria. », https://www.andci.it/avanti-per-il-difensore-civico-in-calabria/
Note 1 ) See this link and its documents: http://rivincitasociale.altervista.org/to-counter-italian-state-terrorism-need-lawyer-worthy-of-trust-july-26-2020/