Debate contributions by Raffaele TOPO

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, reforming the European economy, investing in competitiveness and at the same time protecting workers' rights and the quality of employment are today both of Europe's top priorities. It is necessary First and foremost promoting a European industrial policy in step with the times, with investments in support of services of general interest and, of course, for the creation of quality jobs, with the establishment of a European Competitiveness Fund, as reiterated several times by the Commissioner to the President of the Commission. Now, at the same time, we are addressing restructuring processes, accelerated by the digital and green transitions, which need to be managed with effective tools to protect employment, workers' rights and businesses; instruments such as SURE, set up to mitigate unemployment risks, which saved millions of jobs during the crisis. Therefore, these instruments must be strengthened in order to support the income of employees and redundancies. We therefore expect the Commission to take initiatives on these matters, in line with the resolution adopted by the EMPL Committee.

Madam President, Commissioner, we supported in committee, and we will support in this House, the RESTORE package, the temporary instrument to support the efforts of the Member States in reconstruction operations and for immediate assistance to people and workers directly affected by the natural disasters that have occurred in many European regions over the last year. This is a right decision, because where there is a difficulty for European citizens there must be Europe. That said, two brief side remarks. The first one: it is necessary to introduce a stable instrument for the management of these emergencies, which are repeated, alas, periodically. Member States have stable civil protection services that need to be supported with an equally stable European instrument and with an autonomous financial envelope. Second remark. It has already been said: RESTORE is financed by funds earmarked for cohesion policies. I repeat, this is the right choice, but it is necessary to separate these resources from those allocated to structural projects which are essential for the development of European regions. These resources must be recovered and reinvested in cohesion programmes.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the future of cohesion policy must remain in the hands of cities and regions. Territorial institutions must be key instruments: They should be used to help Europe tackle the green, digital and inclusive transition. Those who, like me, have had experience in these areas – I was mayor, regional councillor – are well aware of the importance of this choice, which also has a positive impact on the opinion of our citizens vis-à-vis this same institution. We must pay attention to the opinion that European citizenship has about us. Many achievements have been made with these funds: There were no great alternatives. And citizens' trust in regional and local authorities has been increasing in recent years. And this is because regions and cities are the direct protagonists of the implementation of much of European legislation, public investment, public spending, just to give some elements. All these figures confirm that cohesion policy must be reformed, of course, but in the direction of simplifying procedures, speeding up spending, perhaps providing for some checks. Centralizing it is a mistake.