A 22.8 billion hole in the coffers of Italian local authorities left by the pandemic
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The alarm was raised by the EU Committee of Regions which, in the week dedicated to European local authorities, presented the estimates of its latest barometer.
The footprint left in 2020 by the pandemic on the local administrations of our country - emerges from the report - is heavy: squeezed between the major expenses to be incurred to cope with the emergency and the lost revenue due to the crisis, the loss recorded is in absolute terms. the highest in Europe after Germany, where Laender and the city scored almost 112 billion in red.
At the European level, the so-called 'scissor effect' for local authorities is worth 180 billion euros, equal to the sum of the higher expenses due to the pandemic (125 billion) and lost revenues (55 billion).
All this, the president of the Committee, Apostolos Tzitzikostas warned, "could lead to cutting public services, unless more resources urgently arrive from EU and national funds to support local projects and programs".
An alarm that would affect the whole of the Union.
If the coffers of the Italian administrations, which risk a hole of 23 billion euros, have lost about 9% of revenues, in relative terms the greatest losses were recorded in Cyprus (25%), Bulgaria and Germany (15%).
While the lowest in Romania, Denmark, Greece, Hungary and Estonia (no more than 2%).