Tommasi’s Verona is betting on Europe
Brussels – Last June, with a surprising result in many ways, Damiano Tommasi was elected mayor of Verona and crossed the threshold of the Town Hall with a European flag in his hands. A gesture to reiterate one of the mantras of the center-left candidate’s election campaign: finally make Verona a European city. Now this symbolic choice of field becomes political action: for this reason the kermesse dedicated to regions and local authorities organized by the European Committee of the Regions in Brussels was also present city councilor with responsibility for European policies Giacomo Cona.
Twenty-eight years old, lawyer, Cona seems to combine the characteristics necessary to govern the young municipal council in the ecosystem of European institutions: he is part of that Erasmus generation that shares a strong European and, thanks to his training as a lawyer, knows a maze of apparatuses and legislation that constitutes the Union. “The goal – he explains – was to participate in meetings, events, debates, workshops and take home new points and stimuli: it is useful to participate in these events, because to understand how the European institutions relate to the territories”.
In party on behalf of Mayor Tommasi, Cona left for Brussels “to learn about the European institutions that you know the mission of regional cohesion policy and to get to know my counterparts advisers from all over Europe with whom to exchange good practices“. And then a concrete objective, to search for opportunities: “I’m trying to bring home something for the city, some funding opportunities: a call for tenders to participate in, a project in which we can enter as a municipality”.
What are the needs that a medium-large municipality in Northern Italy, with a population of about 250,000 inhabitants, brings to the tables of the European institutions? They find space in the priorities of the Veronese council environmental sustainability and the energy transition, digitalisation and innovation of public services, but also social inclusion, housing policies and the enhancement of cultural heritage.
“The impression I had – states Cona- is that there are many opportunities, you just need to know how to move in time and have an internal structure within the Municipality capable of obtaining funding that will make the city grow”. To be able to intercept the greatest number of resources that Europe puts on the plate for local authorities, the municipality of Verona has equipped itself with a European control room: made up of political figures, the mayor and the councilors of competence, and the technicians of the municipality, for Cona it is “the embryo of the European planning office that we want to establish also in Verona”. Composed of competent project managers, those who deal with the reporting phase and those who deal with the scouting part of the various calls. “All figures that would make us a super efficient machine, capable of receiving the funds that the city needs”, she assures us.
Because to give a change of pace in the administration of the Municipality, it is enough to do only on internal resources: the annual spending margin as a municipality like Verona is about 15 million, “that you do not want to design something truly innovative the city – underlines Cona -; if, on the other hand, you manage to get as many from European funding, then everything changes. Which is what the most virtuous cities such as Bergamo, Modena, Trento, Padua already do ”.
Verona has already received 80 million euros from the Italian PNRR and the European policy advisor aims to get the same number in the next year and a half. “The problem – confesses Cona- is to spend the money on time and to report everything”. A theme that emerged several times during the work on the European Week of Regions and Cities, which the EU tries to solve by providing a series of tools, such as training seminars on individual calls, technicians who support local authorities step by step in the realization of projects.
“The EU comes to meet us, but it depends on how determined the local authority is to invest in European planning. We must enter into the perspective that receiving resources and spending them for the community also means Learning in competition with other realities and knowing how to win the game of European design”, Comments the managing director again.
On this point, perhaps a region like Veneto, characterized by a very flourishing traditional private sector and the mentality of “stand on your own legs”, is behind compared to other territories: “There are more virtuous than us – admits Cona – and that in fact are shown much further on: Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Piedmont, Trentino Alto-Adige. If President Zaia never comes to Brussels, we see that the interest of those who govern the Veneto region in European policies is very low ”.
The hope of Damiano Tommasi’s Verona and his regional policy advisor Giacomo Cona is that music can begin to change, from a “Va ‘Pensiero” in the Po Valley to a more European “Hymn to Joy”.