{"id":467989,"date":"2026-10-14T15:17:34","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T13:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/10\/14\/appello-di-sei-regioni-italiane-contro-i-tagli-al-bilancio-dellue\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T16:46:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T14:46:37","slug":"six-italian-regions-join-call-against-eu-budget-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/10\/14\/six-italian-regions-join-call-against-eu-budget-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Italian regions join call against EU budget cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 The message is clear: the proposal for the EU\u2019s multiannual budget for 2028\u20132034, which \u201csees the<\/span><\/span> Council involved in the Irish Presidency\u2019s Nego-Box is<\/span><\/span> \u2018wrong\u2019.\u201d The reason? \u201cIt impoverishes the regions, <\/span><\/span>the standards of citizenship, and runs counter to the vision of Europe that has been built up over recent decades.” This was stated today (14 October) by the chair of the Socialist Group at the European Committee of the Regions, Luca Menesini,<\/strong> at a press briefing at the European Parliament in Brussels, on the sidelines of the Committee of the Regions\u2019 plenary session, during which he presented the appeal launched by Italian and European progressive figures \u2013 including six regional presidents, MEPs, and representatives of the European Committee of the Regions \u2013 against the proposal to reduce the EU\u2019s next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). \u201cIf this proposal goes ahead, <\/strong>we will vote against it within our institutions,<\/strong>\u201d warned Menesini.<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

The appeal is entitled “A Europe of the regions, not a Europe of cuts” and is backed by a coalition of progressive Italian and European figures, including six regional presidents, MEPs, and representatives of the European Committee of the Regions. The document <\/span>has received the support of Menesini, of <\/span><\/span><\/span>the heads of delegation to the European Parliament, Nicola Zingaretti<\/strong> (PD, S&D) and Pasquale Tridico<\/strong> (M5S, La Sinistra), together with the regional presidents, Antonio Decaro<\/strong> (Puglia), Stefania Proietti<\/strong> (Umbria), Alessandra Todde<\/strong> (Sardinia), Michele de Pascale<\/strong> (Emilia-Romagna), Eugenio Giani<\/strong> (Tuscany), and Roberto Fico<\/strong> (Campania). Furthermore, the appeal is still circulating in order to secure the support of other local administrators. <\/span>\u201cWe will also be working with mayors, starting with those in the major cities, and we will, of course, present this to our representatives <\/span>who sit on both the Council and the Committee,\u201d<\/span> Menesini announced. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the document, the signatories criticise both the European Commission\u2019s proposal and, above all, the proposal put forward by the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU for a cut of \u20ac141 billion, equivalent to 8 per cent of the future EU budget. According to the appeal\u2019s supporters, this is a move to accommodate the demands of the so-called “frugal” countries. <\/span><\/span>The negotiated compromise (Nego-Box) <\/a>proposed by the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU is characterised by further cuts on top of those already proposed by the Cypriot government<\/a>, the country that held the presidency in the first half of the year, prior to Ireland. In particular, for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and cohesion policy,<\/strong> programmes brought together for the first time under a single funding instrument, there is an intended reduction of \u20ac27.8 billion<\/a><\/strong> compared with the previous proposal from the Cypriot Presidency (942 billion). <\/p>\n

The MEP and head of the PD (S&D) delegation, Nicola Zingaretti<\/strong>, has stated that with this Nego-Box “Brussels is complicit in the exclusion of the Italian regions as managing authorities for European funds.” According to Zingaretti, the current MFF is <\/span><\/span>\u201cunacceptable both<\/span><\/span> <\/span>in terms of the quantity of resources, which are scarce, and in terms of quality, because these regions are excluded from European programming.” Along the same lines, the<\/span><\/span> MEP from the Five Star Movement (The Left), Pasquale Tridico<\/strong>, argues that \u201cthis unacceptable budget must be opposed by every means possible\u201d because \u201c<\/span><\/span>it takes over \u20ac140 billion away from the regions and from cohesion policy, the European Union\u2019s most important policy.” In this context, he emphasised, \u201cwhat<\/span><\/span> is even more infuriating is the fact that, at the same time, defence spending has increased fivefold.” <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The President of the Tuscany Region, Eugenio Giani<\/strong>, has agreed. “It is unacceptable that the<\/strong> cohesion funds should be cut by 20\u201325 per cent, because it is on these funds that we base our policies.<\/strong>” In concrete terms, we are talking about<\/span><\/span> “free nurseries, books for those on low incomes, and the inclusion of those who are not self-sufficient,” as well as “<\/span><\/span>policies for environmental protection and the promotion of public transport.” The President of the Sardinia Region, Alessandra Todde<\/strong>, also voiced criticism, highlighting that \u201cthe<\/span><\/span> Sardinian citizens, like those from other regions, view Europe through the lens of cohesion funds\u201d and that the centralisation of these resources \u201cmeans pushing Europe even further away from our regions and our country.\u201d <\/span><\/span>The President of the Umbria Region, Stefania Proietti<\/strong>, went on to clarify that it is not possible to \u201cdefend inland areas without cohesion funds,\u201d and that these very territories \u201cmust be seen as resources: All citizens are equal; we need cohesion funds; we need to design tailor-made projects and services. Only those who know the regions know how to apply and implement European policies.\u201d Finally, the President of the Puglia Region, Antonio Decaro<\/strong>, explained that in recent years \u201cthe<\/span><\/span> cohesion policies have helped to reduce disparities, enabling parents to go out and look for work<\/span><\/span> <\/span>thanks to the availability of a nursery, and have enabled young people to find stable employment through a training course.” For this reason, \u201ccentralising<\/span><\/span> those resources so that only Member States have access to them, thereby undermining the virtuous relationship between Europe and the regions, <\/span><\/span>means taking those resources away from citizens.”<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cThe European budget is where Europe decides what it wants to be. Today, that choice risks being the wrong one,\u201d reads the text, which argues that behind the word \u201csimplification\u201d lies \u201ca vision of a smaller, more centralised Union that is further removed from its citizens.\u201d The signatories warn that they will not accept \u201ca budget that cuts back on cohesion, weakens agriculture, and erases the role of the regions and cities.\u201d<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the European Parliament, the presidents of the Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Puglia, Sardinia, Tuscany, and Umbria regions, together with MEPs and representatives of the Regional Coordination Committee (COR), emphasised that they would not accept a long-term budget that undermines cohesion and weakens agriculture<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":467913,"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":[25705,25681],"tags":[26671,25755,34871,30953,27603,26707,29993,36229,36230,36231,36232,26408,28379],"class_list":["post-467989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-politics","tag-committee-of-regions-en","tag-news-parliament-en","tag-movimento-cinque-stelle","tag-nicola-zingaretti-en","tag-paschal-tridico-en","tag-pd-en-2","tag-qfp-2028-2034-en","tag-regione-puglia","tag-regione-sardegna","tag-regione-toscana","tag-regione-umbria","tag-socialisti-e-democratici-en","tag-la-sinistra-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467989","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\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":467990,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467989\/revisions\/467990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}