Italian regions are calling for flexibility under the Pact to tackle rising energy costs. Zaia: “The EU must listen to the government”

Brussels – “I think it is essential to heed the Meloni government’s request: it has been very clear regarding the possibility of investing and increasing spending.” Speaking on the sidelines of the meeting of the Committee of the Regions’ (CoR) Commission for Natural Resources, which met today (1 June) and elected him first vice-president (of two), the former president of Veneto, Luca Zaia, commented favourably on Italy’s proposal to tackle rising energy costs by potentially suspending the Stability Pact. Meanwhile, regarding the request by the European Commission’s Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Raffaele Fitto, to tackle high energy costs by using Cohesion Funds that have already been allocated, he added: “The Cohesion Funds already have their designated purpose. It would be better instead for the European Union to allow us to loosen the purse strings and carry out the measures the government wishes to implement.” 

Alessio Mammi, Regional Councillor for Agriculture in Emilia-Romagna, took a firmer stance, arguing that the proposal from the Berlaymont Building to use cohesion funds to tackle high energy costs “is unacceptable. Taking money from the Cohesion Fund for energy policies,” he continued, “seems completely wrong to me” because “cohesion funds are very important for making investments, especially in rural areas and those furthest from urban centres.” An example? “Think of roads, infrastructure, urban regeneration, social or health services which, in some mountain areas, need new investment,” he explained. 

At today’s meeting of the Natural Resources Committee, Mammi’s opinion was unanimously approved, calling for the 20 per cent cut in CAP funds and agricultural resources to be avoided in the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework for 2028–2034. In addition, it also calls for the retention of the CMO – Common Market Organisation, a tool which the rapporteur describes as “a formidable means of helping our agricultural businesses to invest in research and production and to promote the consolidation of supply, which is necessary to guarantee farmers’ incomes.” To tackle all these challenges, the councillor believes it is necessary to focus on three areas: increasing the percentage of EU public spending from 1 to 1.6 per cent of the Union’s Gross National Income, boosting protein production (for which, according to Mammi, Europe has a deficit), and incentivising the production of European fertilisers: “We cannot depend on others; the blockage of a key chokepoint such as Hormuz is enough to throw agricultural supply chains into crisis.” 

Finally, Alberto Cirio, President of the Piedmont Region, remarked that “it is difficult to explain to citizens why Europe allows the Stability Pact to be breached to purchase drones or missiles, but not to help a baker pay a bill that has tripled or quadrupled due to international wars.” The president called for a positive response from the European Commission to Italy’s request because “the well-being of Italy and the very credibility of Europe are at stake.” 

Today at the Committee of the Regions, the governor of Piedmont launched a debate on protecting the rice sector. “Italian farmers are currently paying the price for a flawed European trade policy: we continue to import rice from Myanmar and South-East Asia duty-free in the name of a sort of international solidarity that, however, fails to ensure a genuine balance of trade,” he explained. Cirio’s opinion therefore calls for the suspension of those agreements that form part of the Generalised System of Preferences: a trade instrument designed to support growth in developing countries by allowing them to export certain products at very low tariffs. The reform of this system was approved at the plenary session last April and has seen the automatic activation of safeguard measures against Asian competition, should rice imports increase by 45 per cent: a threshold, however, that is too high for the European Conservatives group. For Cirio, “there is an Italian product of excellence called rice, which is sometimes not considered a European resource because most of it is produced in our country.”