Good morning everyone.
Thank you for being here, and I especially wish to thank Mayor of Naples Manfredi for his cooperation and welcome. My greetings go to all the authorities in attendance; I wish to greet President of the Region Vincenzo de Luca as well as the Ministers, Mayors, the CEO of Invitalia Bernardo Mattarella and the Prefect of Bari. My thanks to all those present.

I believe the Mayor said a lot about what we are here to do today, and I think his words have made it clear that something very important is happening this morning for Naples, for the Campania Region, and for the South as a whole. 

You of course all know the history of this area better than I do, about what happened here in Bagnoli after the hot rolling mill was closed on 20 October 1990, followed by the definitive closure in 1993 of what had been one of Europe’s largest industrial areas and steelworks for almost a century: Ilva-Italsider in Bagnoli, which made its mark on the history of manufacturing in the South, on Italy’s manufacturing history, thanks to its size, importance, the jobs it created for generations of workers and the contribution it guaranteed to economic growth in the Mezzogiorno.

When that long, complex, and at times troubled, story came to an end, a new era was supposed to begin, one of environmental clean-up and regeneration of the area, the aim of which was to give back to citizens, to the people of Naples, to the south of Italy, an incredibly vast area spanning 250 hectares of land and 14 square kilometres of sea, and all its extraordinary potential.  

You also know better than I do that this did not happen. For more than 30 years, all attempts at redevelopment did not achieve the results that were hoped for, to put it mildly. I saw there were some protestors outside, and judging by the slogans I’d say they were from social centres, but if they weren’t, if they were from other groups or committees for instance, then I would like to tell those citizens talking about politicians just parading around that I understand them, because many promises have been made here that have not then been kept. However, I would also like to tell those citizens to give us the chance to show that things can change.

This is basically why we are here. In the past, we saw the resounding failure of Bagnoli Futura, which should have carried out the redevelopment work, but instead left behind a site that is 93% contaminated, keeping the environmental disaster of the landfill at sea substantially unchanged, with almost 200 thousand square metres filled with concrete and polluting waste from the former Italsider plant’s blast furnace. Bagnoli Futura went bankrupt ten years ago and, since then, the area has been put under a special commissioner; the first government commissioner was appointed in 2015 and Invitalia was named as the implementing body for the clean-up programme.

What didn’t work? The thing that didn’t work was that, in the last ten years, an important element was missing to ensure the special commissioner could deliver concrete results: resources.

That is the problem we are now trying to help solve, and it is a problem we have been working on ever since we came to office. As the Mayor mentioned, we have relaunched the steering committee provided for by law, which has established the Bagnoli-Coroglio crisis area, the environmental clean-up and urban regeneration plan (the so-called ‘PRARU’) has been revised, and we have above all dealt with finding the resources needed to ensure that commitments undertaken do not remain, let’s say, written in the sand, unlike what has happened for so many years.

It is worth remembering that approximately EUR 2.28 billion is needed to cover the cost of clean-up and redevelopment work on this site, whereas only EUR 480 million had been made available, corresponding to less than a seventh of the necessary amount.

With the ‘Cohesion Decree’, we therefore decided to allocate what was needed to cover public investments, i.e. EUR 1.218 billion from the Development and Cohesion Fund resources for 2021-2027, meaning national funds. The Cohesion Decree allocates these resources and provides for a memorandum of understanding to be signed that sets concrete goals and, as the Mayor was saying, also indicates a precise timeline.

So, today, the institutions, the State, are here in Bagnoli and are deciding to take responsibility for a long-standing problem, one of those issues that have been going on for so long that citizens at a certain point become convinced that nothing can be done to reverse the trend. I, however, believe that real politics must be about testing our abilities on difficult goals, not on the easy ones, because this is the only way to show, firstly, that not all politicians are the same, but above all it is the only way to bring citizens closer to the institutions again. We are trying to do this also in this region, as indeed we have done in other places. I can see Commissioner Ciciliano and Caivano comes to mind, where it was also said that nothing could change, and yet instead, with determination, perseverance, professionalism and lots of hard work, some things can indeed change. It is my sincere, personal commitment, of course together with all the authorities and institutions involved, that this can happen here too.

Here in Bagnoli, the institutions want to take on a commitment, which is also to deliver on promises. I therefore wish to thank Minister Fitto together with Mayor of Naples and Government commissioner Manfredi. I also wish to thank all administrations that have been working on this objective for several months, because this involved great teamwork which has effectively created the conditions to finally tackle the environmental clean-up work and the most ambitious urban regeneration project in Europe.

As we were saying, the memorandum of understanding we are signing today provides for all the measures included in the clean-up programme to be sped up, starting with full remediation of the soil and marine area, and network and infrastructure reconstruction and strengthening. However, it also sets a number of new goals: I am thinking of the construction of a 2km-long waterfront, making it possible to swim along this stretch of coastline; I am thinking of the redevelopment of Borgo Coroglio; I am thinking of the urban park covering 130 hectares, complete with sports facilities and industrial archaeological sites; I am thinking of the 13km of cycle routes; I am thinking of the 8 gigawatt hours of solar energy produced; the construction of new buildings and of course the renovation of existing ones, for a total of 1.6 million cubic metres.

This package of measures must be completed by 2031 and, according to estimates, there will be the knock-on effect of more than 10,000 jobs being created, including direct and indirect workers.

Over the coming weeks, upon completion of the work to clean up the asbestos contamination, construction sites will be opened to begin rolling out the first measures.

In short, the challenge is to transform a polluted, abandoned area which had come to symbolise a failure by the institutions to manage to be concrete in their responses, into a modern, seaside tourism and commercial hub that lives up to the extraordinary city of Naples, and the extraordinary Campania Region.

We have been able to imagine, build and work together on this strategic project thanks to the cohesion policy reform carried out by this Government. Said reform takes its inspiration from a very precise vision, which is to use all the resources necessary to overcome regional gaps, focusing those resources on strategic projects and major investments, especially in Italy’s Mezzogiorno. These resources are extremely valuable but, it must be said, they have not always been spent or used for strategic measures.

Completing the clean-up of Bagnoli is a strategic investment, for the south of the country, for the Campania Region, for the whole of Italy. I am proud of this Government’s choice to allocate EUR 1.218 billion in cohesion resources to this project.

However - and you’ll excuse me for zooming out a little, as everything works as part of a strategy - the cohesion policy reform that gave rise to the cohesion agreements we have signed with 18 Regions and Autonomous Provinces so far, is only part of the overall strategy we are trying to envisage for Italy’s Mezzogiorno. For example, within the Cohesion Decree, we also established an ‘infrastructure equalisation’ fund and made it a legal requirement to allocate 40% of resources to infrastructure in the south of the country.

I consider this to be an important response because for years spending on infrastructure had been distributed based on population distribution, but continuing to use this parameter alone won’t work, because we have a problem with depopulation in the south of Italy, and that depopulation is linked to the lack of opportunities, and the lack of opportunities is linked to the lack of infrastructure. Unless this trend is reversed, it therefore won’t be possible to address this issue in a more structured and structural way. 

I also wish to recall that we dealt with employment in the Cohesion Decree too, allocating approximately EUR 2.8 billion to support the hiring of women, young people and disadvantaged individuals. We told companies that, if they hire these [categories of] people, and do so for two years, then they won’t have to pay the related contributions to the State, on one condition: that those people are hired on a permanent basis.

With regard to supporting employment, I also have some good news regarding an extension of the ‘Decontribuzione Sud’ measure [an aid scheme for the South], which has been praised across the board by all political groups. This was granted by the European Commission at the Italian Government’s request. This is obviously an extremely important measure which we believe is very useful, and are working to make it structural in nature. Minister Fitto has already begun work with the European Commission on this goal and I am very confident he will succeed in this too.

Then there is the single SEZ for the Mezzogiorno, which I believe to be another very important measure, unlike what I have heard in some cases, as it allows investments in Italy’s eight southern regions to benefit from streamlined administrative procedures and tax breaks. This makes it more profitable to invest in these regions, thereby helping to bridge the gaps. For example, the tax credit we have already invested EUR 2 billion in and that has recently come into force offers an advantage for those investing in these areas. I therefore wish to say that I very much believe in this measure and am convinced it will guarantee more development, more growth, more employment and an overall improvement in the quality of public services, with action being taken on the networks. I think this is substantially what the Mezzogiorno needs: tools to allow it to compete on an equal footing and prove its value and worth, and we have based our measures precisely on this view of Italy’s South.

We have put in place a package of measures that will also help consolidate and strengthen the Mezzogiorno’s economy and, if we look at the data from Svimez, some things appear to be moving: in 2023, GDP in the south of the country grew by approximately half a point more than the national average, which hadn’t happened since 2015. The number of new jobs in the Mezzogiorno increased by 2.6% compared with a national average of 1.8%. However, the figure I am most proud of regards the amount of investments in public works projects and strategic infrastructure, up from EUR 8.7 billion in 2022 to EUR 13 billion in 2023, with an increase of around 50%. ‘Citizenship infrastructure’: the basis for building equal rights and equal opportunities for citizens in this region. 

As Mayor Manfredi was also saying, I would then like to highlight the value of the sea as a strategic asset. When it comes to Bagnoli, talking about the sea is a must, and this is another key part of a development and growth strategy for our production system and economy.
As you know, this Government decided to appoint a Minister for Marine Policies, and that Ministry has already worked on a ‘Sea Plan’ to coordinate all stakeholders, operators and industries whose work is linked to this huge, extraordinary infrastructure resource of ours, because we are a platform in the middle of the Mediterranean and we simply have to make use of our extraordinary geopolitical positioning.

I would therefore like to thank Minister Musumeci, also for coordinating the decree law regarding the Campi Flegrei [Phlegraean Fields], which allocates EUR 400 million to combat the phenomenon of bradyseism. I also wish to thank Minister Fitto for the EUR 388 million that the most recent resolution by the Interministerial Committee for Economic Planning and Sustainable Development (CIPESS) allocated to this area to allow projects from the previous European programming period to be completed, meaning resources to help municipalities fully implement those measures. I would also like to thank Minister Sangiuliano, who is also here; of course being from Naples, from the Campania Region, he has focused a lot on highlighting this city’s distinctive characteristics and identity. In this regard, I also wish to once again thank the Mayor of Naples, because we are working together on many projects, the most important of which is undoubtedly the creation, together with the Municipality of Naples, of Europe’s largest example of cultural infrastructure, in the former Real Albergo dei Poveri in Naples. Also here, the aim is to give the city back a huge space, covering 140 thousand square metres, which will host a branch of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, a library and a campus of the University of Naples Federico II.

So, excuse me for taking this opportunity to also provide a comprehensive overview of what we are doing, what we plan to do, not just for the Campania Region but for the Mezzogiorno as a whole. There is clearly still a lot of work to do, with very many problems to solve, but the political will is there and, also by working hard, in the end we are finding the resources for serious things. The outlook before us is a medium and long-term one, allowing us to plan and schedule actions and, above all, we in any case like working, and working hard.

We will therefore do what needs to be done, and we will show those who thought these areas were somehow beyond saving, without hope, and that it was only possible, let’s say, to keep them in their current condition with an over-reliance on welfare benefits, well we will show those people that they were very much mistaken.

Much more can be done and done differently, and it is possible to put these areas in a position to be able to compete on an equal footing and prove their worth.

Thank you.

[Courtesy translation]