At the end of June 2023, Italy had spent and reported in Brussels only one of the more than seven billion available from the national operational program 'Systems for active policies for employment' of the 2014-2020 programming cycle of the Cohesion Policy. This is what emerges from an analysis of data published on the European Commission's CohesionData portal. In Italy, a spokeswoman for the European Commission said, "the implementation of some operational programmes 2014-2020 remains problematic, especially as regards the additional React-EU funds in national programmes". Our country was one of the main beneficiaries of the React-Eu awarding additional resources for 14.4 billion. The programme allocated additional resources to the 27 Member States between 2021 and 2022, as part of the European recovery plan after the coronavirus outbreak and, in particular, brought an additional €4.7 billion to the Italian programme for employment policies. This increase is one of the factors influencing the implementation of cohesion funds, including at European level. In fact, the spokesperson stressed, "the delays in the implementation of the 2014-2020 period do not only concern Italy" and are also due to the slowdown in economic activity caused by Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. These elements have increased pressure on public budgets, limiting the disbursement of national co-financing.
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