Good morning everyone. 
My thanks go to the Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces and its President Massimiliano Fedriga, whose speech I very much enjoyed, for having conceived and organised this initiative. Thank you for your words; I share a lot of what has just been said. I wish to thank President of the Lombardy Region Fontana, who is hosting this event, and my greetings also go to the Ministers, Regional Presidents, Mayors, representatives of regional and local authorities and institutional representatives who will be speaking over the course of this two-day event.

I would have preferred to attend in person, but this is unfortunately rather difficult for a government that has just taken office and has many deadlines to deal with, as the Ministers will also confirm. I nevertheless wanted to take part. I indeed accepted President Fedriga’s invitation to attend this first edition of the ‘Festival of Regions and Autonomous Provinces’ because this Government, as I have already said on other occasions, firmly believes in cooperation between Italy’s central government, regions, autonomous provinces and local authorities. We want to invest heavily in ensuring synergy between all the levels that make up our Republic: at a time like this, I don’t think any of us can consider dealing with the huge challenges we are facing alone. 

Cooperation between all institutional levels is something that this Government especially cares about: I know the Minister for Regional Affairs and Autonomies, Roberto Calderoli, the Minister for European Affairs, Southern Italy, Cohesion Policy and the NRRP, Raffaele Fitto, and the Minister for Civil Protection and Marine Policies, Nello Musumeci, are there in person and I wish to greet and thank them for their work and for explaining the Government’s efforts during this event’s working sessions.

Italy is a mosaic of local areas with extraordinary potential. Each area of the country has talents and resources that deserve to be known about, enhanced and networked. We must be aware of this wealth in order to strengthen and develop the feeling of national belonging. In our daily work, it is our job to strengthen this identity-based, cultural, economic and social connection, conveying this in our policies and in the choices we are called upon to make every day and that regard very concrete issues and problems, starting with the themes selected for this event: infrastructure, security, the ecological transition, energy supplies, digital innovation, social and welfare policies, support for families and the birth rate. These themes embody decisive challenges for the future of this nation, and we will only be able to address them if we manage to implement the right synergies between Italy’s central government, regions, autonomous provinces and local authorities.

The pandemic and then the war in Ukraine have objectively thrown us into a completely new world, with a geopolitical and economic context in which cohesion and unity are a must, at all levels. In my view, we must also ensure a long-term vision, because, if we take a closer look, the critical structural issues we are facing are above all the result of the short-sighted policies of the past. Just think about the issue of energy: in the past, the European Union and its various Member States, including Italy, preferred to gradually increase their level of dependence on other countries rather than implement measures that would boost production, independence and national energy security. Today, we are paying the price for those choices, and energy is just one of the many examples. I believe it is our responsibility to do what we can to remedy this, at least by working on shared and structural solutions, because it certainly would not be advisable to add present-day selfishness to the short-sightedness of the past. NextGenerationEU was an initial response at EU level, but, today, it is clear to everyone that this is no longer sufficient. It is no longer sufficient because it was a plan designed to deal with the consequences of the pandemic: it obviously couldn’t take into account the impact the war in Ukraine would have on our economic, productive and social fabric, as this broke out after the programme was introduced. More must be done at European level, starting precisely with the issue of high energy prices; at the same time, cohesion and solidarity must be strengthened at national level.

Constructive discussions between all the institutional players involved is therefore important, crucial, if we are to imagine and build a strategy for the future. To design that future, analysing the past is the only way to begin.

In this regard, allow me to quickly mention a number of ‘distortions’ on which the relationship between the state and regional authorities is based today. I am particularly referring to the 2001 reform of Title V of the Constitution which, in relation to many matters, instead of simplifying and making responsibilities and functions clear, actually increased disputes (and all they entail in terms of longer time frames and less efficiency) – continuous disputes between the State’s powers and continuous appeals before the Constitutional Court. I have seen the figures and this kind of dispute has increased significantly in recent years, obviously also as a result of the problems linked to managing the pandemic (I am thinking, for example, of the issue of reopening schools and businesses).

I think it is necessary to discuss areas of responsibility and clear roles, and this needs to be done together and without prejudice. The Government wants to work on a new cooperation model, starting with the coordination of state and regional policies, making the most of all the opportunities presented by the resources of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (‘NRRP’). I listened to Massimiliano Fedriga’s words and I remember the criticism that was raised by many Regional Presidents at the time regarding the lack of involvement of the Regions in drawing up the NRRP. I can also remember the criticism in this regard that I myself, then in another capacity, was among the first to raise in Parliament during the previous legislature, as well as the criticism regarding the lack of involvement of Parliament at the time – a Parliament that found itself having to vote on a document that had only just been submitted, without the time to look at it in depth.

The NRRP is an important legacy, but it can only be an important legacy if those opportunities are not lost. This is why the Government, just a few days after taking office, decided to relaunch the NRRP steering committee, in order to monitor progress towards reaching objectives and to identify the best solutions to overcome critical issues, in a quick, efficient and cohesive way, involving all players. 

We deemed it necessary to involve all levels of government and social partners in order to establish the cooperation that is essential to achieve all the set milestones and targets. There will be the opportunity to work on this in the coming weeks, both because a number of the NRRP’s major objectives cannot be achieved unless the Regions are significantly involved (from energy to healthcare, to name a few examples), and because it will be fundamental that NRRP resources and objectives do not run on a single, independent track but rather must be connected and complementary to the measures and resources of other national policies (I am thinking above all of regular cohesion policy programming).

Also in this regard, in the various programming periods, some regional authorities have been able to implement planned investments well, while others have not achieved this objective, effectively increasing the gap between the richest and the poorest regions. This is something that the European Commission itself has also underlined. Differing administrative capacities between the various regions undoubtedly lies at the root of this problem, and I believe we also need to work on this, facilitating the exchange of best practices between the various areas and implementing a shared and coordinated medium and long-term strategy.

Many topics will be covered during this two-day event. Despite only taking office just over a month ago, this Government has already taken action on many of them, with a budget law that guarantees the sustainability of public finances at the same time as providing responses to immediate emergencies, protecting households and businesses and allowing the various institutional bodies to continue with their activities and investments. I am referring, for example, to the EUR 8 billion to deal with high raw material costs for works that cannot be postponed; we would have liked to do more and better but, clearly, when, together with the problem of high raw material costs, you are also addressing a situation like the one we are faced with, with EUR 30 billion being freed up in just one month to be allocated solely to safeguarding our production system and households against high energy bills, you have to work based on priorities.

For me and for this Government, strengthening the health system is a priority, starting with the need for healthcare services to be closer to the needs of local areas. In this regard, it is also fundamental that resources from the ‘National Health Fund’ are used more correctly and efficiently; the increase to this fund for purposes linked to the need to tackle the Covid-19 emergency was, objectively, extraordinary in nature.

The agreement reached last Friday as part of the Conference of Regions, regarding distribution of the National Health Fund for 2022 and, from 2023, a uniform introduction of new criteria to try and ensure ‘essential levels of care’ [‘livelli essenziali di assistenza’ ‘LEA’] are provided in the most well-balanced way possible, is certainly a positive step. We all have to work on this together in the coming months, in order to make effective changes to the current system. The sustainability of the system must be our goal, being well aware of the complexity of the situation we are in, which presents a number of elements that you know better than I do: the gradual increase in the average life span and the sharp reduction in the working population; the spread of age-related pathologies that involve high costs; the rise in the rate of disabling chronic diseases; the spread of increasingly advanced and increasingly expensive medical technologies, just as innovative medicines are also very costly. This is a complex situation that needs to be managed carefully and with capacity for cohesion.

It will be just as important to find the instruments to complete healthcare building work and investments in technology; in this regard, many regional authorities have difficulties in completing works projects and investments, for a number of reasons. Also with regard to the NRRP’s measures, we must weigh up priorities, because raw material costs are seriously putting their completion at risk. We must also not forget the need to reorganise and invest in general practice medicine and local healthcare services.

Another issue, which is closely linked to the issue of healthcare, also considering the divide that exists between Italy’s different areas, is that of differentiated autonomy. The Government wants to support its implementation, in a short amount of time and within a broader framework of reforms which we believe are all crucial to strengthen and modernise Italy’s current institutional set-up. The aim is more accountability for everyone: regional authorities, local authorities and central government. However, differentiated autonomy will never be an excuse to leave certain parts of Italy behind. We will work on this being implemented in a virtuous way, on a comprehensive definition of essential service levels and a correct functioning of the ‘equalisation fund’, to ensure cohesion and national unity. The aim of the greater autonomy that each Region can request, within the scope of the matters provided for by the Constitution, is to complete the necessary reforms and infrastructure to improve the efficiency and quality of their services, not to create inequality among citizens.

It is the Government’s hope that differentiated autonomy can represent a challenge for local areas, providing the right stimulus to bridge the infrastructure, healthcare, economic and social gaps that exist not only between Regions but also between different areas within the same Region. I am thinking of the existing imbalances between metropolitan areas and the country’s inner areas.

I shall conclude by saying that the Government is working hard on this and on many other fronts. Some of these will be the focus of your thematic round tables and please know that the Government is more than ready to receive the contributions and conclusions of this work, with the respect and attention that is due to such cooperation between important institutional levels. I want to think of this event as the start of a new path of cooperation between the State, Regions and Autonomous Provinces.

We want to work in this direction and we will ensure that, already in the coming weeks, meetings will be called for the Government and regional authorities to discuss and work together on the various matters, involving President Fedriga but also all of you, based on the NRRP steering committee model. With this objective in mind, I wish to thank and greet you, and once again confirm this commitment, promising that we will organise a thematic meeting at Palazzo Chigi soon. This has only not been done so far because we have had so many international engagements during these first 40 days of Government, but this meeting is indeed also a priority.

With this commitment in mind, I wish to thank you all and wish you all the best with your work.

[Courtesy translation]