Abstract
The European Union’s Cohesion Policy is the most important structural policy in terms of financial commitment, geographical size and time frame, aimed at redistributing wealth between regions and countries, to stimulate growth in areas whose development is lagging behind. The reach of the investments prompted the EU Commission to promote an impact evaluation of the European Structural Funds (SF); however, the impact evaluation of EU programs is almost neglected in the Italian regions. This paper is based on the results developed within the RI.P.R.O.VA.RE project and is aimed at defining an impact evaluation of EU SF and other regional funds, based on evidence derived from the analysis of a specific case study in the Agri Valley area (Basilicata, Italy). To develop the impact evaluation process, the euro amounts of all the individual policies organized according to the themes of the New Urban Agenda (NUA), the impact indicators and the trend for the municipalities are considered together, in order to obtain an overall trend for the entire case study area. An important result is achieved above all in the methodological approach to impact evaluation: the municipal territorial scale is taken into account; the maps illustrate the use of resources; regardless of the type of funding source since there is a comparison between the priority axes of the funds with the NUA issues; and indicators are developed with open data available at a national level. This experiment makes it possible to detect that, even in the face of significant investments, some substantial aspects that are part of the policy objectives remain unchanged or even worsen.
Highlights
In Europe, the debate on Cohesion Policy for the 2021–2027 programming cycle is beginning to feed in
We argue that the unit to be considered for the impact evaluation is the municipal one because it is closer to the citizens, it takes into account the dynamics within the regions, and it is possible to act to improve the current conditions in a specific way
The information acquired for each municipality allowed us to quantify the2 total investments—planned and spent—divided in: the funding typologies, the total resources divided according to the priority axes of funds, the quantity of planned and implemented interventions, the number of interventions based on type, Grumento
Summary
In Europe, the debate on Cohesion Policy for the 2021–2027 programming cycle is beginning to feed in. For Italy, we are seeing a substantial increase in resources: in the period 2021–2027, the funds amount to about 43.5 billion euros, an increase of 29%, due to the updating of the criteria for the allocation of resources between the Member States. The role of the European Union is fundamental as a response to the pandemic crisis [3] with the Generation EU (NGEU) [4,5]. It is a program of unprecedented scope and ambition, involving investment and reforms to accelerate the ecological and digital transition; improving the training of workers; and achieving greater gender, territorial and generational equity.
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