Confindustria Lombardy: ‘No to centralisation of cohesion funds’

Brussels – “We do not agree with the centralisation of cohesion funds“. The Multiannual Financial Framework of the European Commission as it stands does not please Giuseppe Pasini, chairman of Confindustria Lombardy, who calls to revisit the structure of the forthcoming MFF 2028-2034 in the wake of what happened with the Green Deal, the sustainability agenda on which, compared to the previous legislature, corrections were made. Because, he explains in an interview with Eunews, today, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is wrong on cohesion as she was wrong during her first term in office on industrial policy.

 Eunews: Yesterday (19 November), the Commission presented the Digital Omnibus package. How do you assess it? Is it going in the right direction? 

Giuseppe Pasini: “The big challenge is artificial intelligence and digitalization. Here, Europe is lagging far behind the United States and China, and the risk is that in the coming years, we may become subservient to the US digital platforms. We must therefore ask the EU to create the conditions for a leap forward; otherwise, we will be crushed. In Lombardy, we have already shown that it is possible to use funds to support virtuous mechanisms that accompany the digital transition of our companies, and the regional calls for tenders have been successful in terms of participation and company growth.” 

E: So, are you satisfied? 

G.P: ‘What worries us is the European Commission’s too centralized and centralizing approach to cohesion policies. We disagree on this. It is fundamental that on cohesion, the regions can deliberate, that they can have their own autonomy.”

E: What specifically worries you? 

G.P: “We are moving towards bureaucratisation, which is the opposite of simplification.”

E: Have you had the opportunity to raise this issue with Executive Vice-President Fitto? 

G.P: “We have communicated our position precisely to Fitto.”

E: And to the Italian government? 

G.P: “Yes. We hope that on cohesion, things can change.”

E: On the Green Deal? Is it right to go back? Or is changing the targets for businesses a matter of certainty?

 G.P: “I don’t think it is correct to say that we are going backwards. The European Commission is not going back on the sustainability targets; it is revising them in terms of timing, yes. But the targets have not changed, mind you. And companies are asking for revised timetables to meet targets competitively. Look, 99 percent of companies disagreed not on the targets, and very few companies today say they want to change the targets.”

E: There are those in industry who accuse the Commission of taking decisions on the Green Deal without listening to businesses. Do you agree? 

G.P: “Very much so. It should not be the European Commission that dictates industrial policy. When, on cars, the first von der Leyen Commission decided to focus only on electric vehicles without considering neutrality and neutrality technologies, it made an industrial policy choice, forcing people to make choices. She did so with strong support from the Germans, ending up committing a sensational harakiri.”

E: So is the second von der Leyen Commission better than the first? 

G.P: “Certainly.“

E: Are you in favor of the digital euro for all-European payments in the single market? 

G.P: “Absolutely.”