On 10 and 11 March, ReCommon organised two events in Rome to discuss the European Green Deal and how European funds contribute to the green transition in Italy, considering that Italy is currently receiving an unprecedented amount of funds from the EU. Just a few months away from the European elections, both events represented an opportunity to further reflect on how to approach the elections and bring the demands outlined in the Citizens’ Observatory for Green Deal Financing coalition manifesto on the future of EU public finances to the next European institutions, in order to ensure that the transition is socially and environmentally just.
Workshop for activists, civil society organizations and media – 10 March 2024
The first event took place on Sunday 10 March 2024 in Rome and brought together over 30 activists and representatives from local organisations from different parts of Italy that have worked or are currently working on projects that are funded by European funds in Italy. The event connected these groups and allowed to share their experiences and identify synergies, as well as to address common issues emerging from their work.
The participants were divided into small groups and were asked to discuss four topics: (1) Transparency and access to information in your region ; (2) involvement of other groups (citizens, civil society organizations, experts, universities) in your regions ; (3) media coverage in your region and at the national level ; and (4) dialogue and advocacy with the institutions (regional, national or European).
The main challenges identified reflect the complexity of decision-making processes and the importance of involving citizens more broadly and transparently. According to most of the participants, the main difficulties encountered relate to access to and understanding of information on authorisation procedures, transparency of data, and lack of clarity in the goals of the project. As a response to the needs that emerged during the discussions, we anticipated during Sunday’s event the presentation of a new program focusing on public finance and the implementation of European funds within ReCommon. This event was a first major step to build a structured partnership with local groups, in order to ensure the right involvement of civil society for a just transition to climate neutrality by bringing light to the processes of transparency.
“A just transition for Italy. How are we spending Europe’s money?” – 11 March 2024
On 11 March 2024, ReCommon organised an event to discuss the state of implementation of European funds in Italy, with a particular focus on the Recovery and Resilience Facility and cohesion policy funds. The event took place at Spazio Europa (a public space located in Rome and managed by the European Parliament’s Office in Italy and the European Commission’s Representation in Italy) from 10:00 to 13:00. The event features a diverse group of nearly 50 participants from 3 EU countries (Belgium, Italy and Germany) from Italian institutions, civil society organizations, local associations, citizens. Gender diversity was represented both in the panel and in the audience.
The last few years have shown that European funds play an increasingly central role in the Italian economy and politics: an unprecedented amount of funds has been allocated to Italy through the implementation of the NextGenerationEU and the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). Italy is the largest recipient of the RRF and receives large funds from the cohesion policy funds. European funds are therefore essential to promote a green and just transition of the Italian economy and society, but it is necessary that these funds are implemented in an ambitious way.
The topics presented by the four speakers during the panel – The role of European public finance in the context of European elections the impact of European funds for energy efficiency in Italy; the experience of the Civic Observatory’s monitoring of the Italian recovery plan – and the interesting insights that emerged in the final discussion highlighted the opportunity to build a solid network to promote mutual knowledge from CSOs and different actors active on the territory, with the objective to facilitate the exchange of best practices, share the developments of individual cases and intensify the advocacy activities on the decision-makers.
In line with the outcome of the discussion, during the event ReCommon presented a new project, MIRA, aiming to promote transparency and accountability of political parties through advocacy actions at national and European institutions and to ensure the use of public funds that truly contribute to the targets of the European Green Deal.
