{"id":420309,"date":"2025-03-04T16:00:19","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T15:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/03\/04\/difesa-fondi-struttorali-m5s-avs-follia\/"},"modified":"2025-03-04T17:26:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T16:26:18","slug":"defence-financed-with-structural-funds-tough-objections-by-avs-m5s-and-some-socialists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/03\/04\/defence-financed-with-structural-funds-tough-objections-by-avs-m5s-and-some-socialists\/","title":{"rendered":"Defence financed with structural funds, tough objections by AVS, M5S and some socialists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels\u2014As Commission\u00a0President Ursula Von Der Leyen<\/strong>\u00a0presses for increased defence spending on the continent ahead of the March 6 European Council, Italy’s\u00a0political forces<\/strong>\u00a0make their strenuous\u00a0opposition<\/strong>\u00a0heard in no uncertain terms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This morning (March 4), the president announced the proposal of a five-point\u00a0plan<\/a> for European rearmament<\/strong> that, among other funding sources, includes the possibility for member states to use\u00a0<\/strong>cohesion<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0policy programs to increase defence spending<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0This would mean that\u00a0the 27 could\u00a0sacrifice money earmarked for regional development: spending more on weapons at the expense of infrastructure, tourism, transportation.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Unhappy about this is not only the Chairwoman (S&D) of the European Committee of the Regions (COR<\/a>), Kata T\u00fctto<\/strong>, according to whom “to take funds away from cohesion would be a catastrophic mistake<\/strong>,” but also MEPs and delegates of Italian parties. There is reportedly a strong unease in the PD, while according to Left Green Alliance<\/strong> (AVS), “the senseless increase in military spending as a response to Trump” would be “a resounding own-goal, given that the US president was the first to call for more European investment for the benefit of the arms industry.” The Greens opposed the “misuse” of cohesion funds. They called for them to remain earmarked only for regional development by appealing to the EU Commission’s executive vice president Raffaele Fitto<\/strong>, who manages these funds.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The 5-Star Movement<\/strong> shared the condemnation without half-measures: “War Eurobonds and the whole 800 billion plan to rearm Europe represent the culmination of a war madness<\/strong> that all European citizens must oppose.” The 5-Star Movement announced\u00a0that they\u00a0would take to the streets to demonstrate against the proposal on April 5, and an\u00a0amendment would<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0be presented<\/strong> at the European Parliament’s plenary demanding\u00a0structural funds for regional development not be cut. “If Fitto continues to remain silent on the issue, we will see how the MEPs of Fratelli d’Italia and others will vote,” the movement’s MEPs added.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“Instead of working hand in hand with the United States, the commission sets itself up as an antagonist, having neither the means nor credible leadership<\/strong>.” So wrote in a note\u00a0Silvia Sandrone<\/strong>, MEP of the Lega<\/strong>, attacking Von Der Leyen’s proposals. On cohesion funds, she added, “over the years we have not been able to invest in debt, health, security, aid to businesses, while to arm Europe we can.”<\/p>\n

O<\/span>n the other hand,\u00a0<\/span>M\u0101rti\u0146\u0161 Sta\u0137is<\/strong>, Latvian MEP and coordinator of the Greens\/Efa group in the Committee on Security and Defense (SEAT), defended European rearmament, saying that, with the suspension of U.S. aid to Ukraine, “now is the time for Europe to step up, to increase its support for Ukraine.”\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Belligerent madness, Italy must defend structural funds. “Rearm Europe” and the use of cohesion for EU defence trigger outrage from Italian parties<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7883,"featured_media":417922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[26025,27336,26958,28194,25882,29813,27916,26961],"class_list":["post-420309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-avs-en","tag-investimenti-en","tag-m5s-en-2","tag-parts-in","tag-regions-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7883"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420309"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":420341,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420309\/revisions\/420341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}