{"id":457549,"date":"2026-06-22T10:59:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T08:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/06\/22\/ritardi-nel-potenziamento-della-pubblica-amministrazione-coesione-e-pnrr-si-inceppano-nel-mezzogiorno\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T16:20:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T14:20:32","slug":"delays-in-boosting-administrative-capacity-in-southern-italy-impact-on-the-implementation-of-the-nrrp-and-cohesion-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/06\/22\/delays-in-boosting-administrative-capacity-in-southern-italy-impact-on-the-implementation-of-the-nrrp-and-cohesion-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Delays in boosting administrative capacity in southern Italy impact on the implementation of the NRRP and cohesion policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Strengthening administrative capacity: Italy is experiencing delays in implementing the measures set out in cohesion policies, which are essential to the success of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), raising concerns in the European Parliament and prompting investigations by the European Commission, which is now placing the country under monitoring. The reason for this situation is Italy\u2019s delay in recruiting 2,200 people for the South, an issue raised in the parliamentary question<\/a> by Danilo Della Valle<\/strong> and Valentina Palmisano<\/strong> (M5S\/The Left). <\/p>\n

The South Cohesion project, supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and aimed at recruiting experts for local authorities in southern Italy, is not functioning as intended. It is intended to be \u201ca key tool for supporting the implementation of EU-funded initiatives,\u201d as the Five Star Movement MEPs point out. \u201cHowever, despite the approval of the shortlists in May 2025, the recruitment process remains, to date, severely incomplete<\/strong>.\u201d <\/p>\n

The figures available to the EU executive confirm that this is far from being achieved. \u201cAs of 14 April 2026, 987 people had been recruited and had taken up their posts, out of a total of 1,394 shortlisted candidates<\/strong>,\u201d explains the Executive Vice-President for Reforms, Raffaele Fitto<\/strong>. Therefore, compared with the 2,200 candidates to be recruited, the number of pre-selected candidates is 809 short of the target. Of the initial 1,394 candidates, 947 have not yet taken up their posts. In practical terms, for every person called upon to take up a post, there is another left waiting. But overall, of the 2,200 people envisaged by the project, 1,213 still need to be recruited. <\/p>\n

“The programme\u2019s managing authority reports that the discrepancy is mainly due to the high number of successful candidates who withdraw their availability once they are called up<\/strong> to take up their posts,” explains Fitto in his reply. There would therefore appear to be a nationwide breakdown, a perfect example of an inability to utilise funds that combines Structural Funds (ERDF) and the Recovery Fund in a cycle that is even more than just vicious. This situation, according to representatives of the Five Star Movement, \u201crisks compromising the administrative capacity of the regions concerned precisely in the crucial phase of the NRRP\u2019s implementation<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

Fitto tries to reassure: \u201cThe Commission has been informed by the Italian authorities of the additional measures planned to ensure the final target of 2,200 people recruited is met, including the launch of an additional recruitment process and an assessment of the interest in recruiting candidates with a different profile<\/strong> to that initially required,\u201d in an effort not to waste funds and to deliver results. In any case, \u201cthe Commission will closely monitor the implementation of these measures.\u201d The fact is that Italy is in difficulty, is already behind schedule, and must now act swiftly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of the 2,200 posts available, 987 are currently filled: the Five Star Movement has criticised the failure to recruit staff one year after the publication of the shortlists. The recruitment process is funded by cohesion funds and is a prerequisite for the management and proper expenditure of NRRP funds<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":457479,"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","show_comment_section":"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":[29704,26180,32012,30253,25830,31866,28440,34541,33394,29243],"class_list":["post-457549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-danilo-della-valle-en","tag-m5s-europe-and","tag-governo-meloni-en","tag-pnrrr-en","tag-public-administration-en","tag-sud","tag-ue","tag-valentina-palmisano-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457549","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\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":457550,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457549\/revisions\/457550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}