Italian southern regions are the slowest in Italy to spend European funds that will soon disappear. The data is alarming: out of the 44 billion Euros for Sicily, Campania, Puglia, Calabria and Basilicata, only 6.5% were spent.

Sicily stopped at 5.1%, which means that there are no projects or they did not really start. And so now we’re trying with the 2007-2013 funds, until they will finish, and that will be a real problem. The image we have is that regions try to stuff themselves but still do not have the right means to feed themselves. And so they starve. But there are also those who eat without paying the bill: the frauds against the European Union, especially in southern Italy, are common.

One way to fight these illegal activities is to overturn funding if it isn’t used within two years. And in the meantime the Eastern-European countries are advancing, taking away the funds from southern Italy. This situation risks to collapse Sicily together with the other regions of the South. Translated by Chiara Nunnari from John Milton Institute