«The reform of differentiated autonomy, as outlined in the delegation approved by the Council of Ministers, raises strong concerns for the future of Calabria. The absence of concrete guarantees on the invariance of resources and the lack of a real equalization risk crystallizing – if not aggravating – the territorial inequalities already underway in our country “.
Declares it Mariaelena Senese, general secretary of Uil Calabriaintervening in the open debate from the new structure proposed for the organization of the state. According to Mariaelena Senese, “the principle of financial invariance cannot become the pretext to escape the responsibility of filling the structural gaps that historically penalize the South. In Calabria, – he explains – where access to essential rights such as health, education, transport and social services is already compromised, any transfer of functions and resources without a preventive definition of the essential levels of services would represent a serious blow to the principles of equality and national cohesion. Talking about autonomy without first having fully defined and guaranteed LEP means abandoning southern citizens to a fate of marginality. The Secretary General of Uil Calabria, then, underlines how the trade union organization is not contrary to principle to a strengthening of territorial skills, but highlights that autonomy must be a tool to improve the efficiency and quality of services, not a mechanism of institutional fragmentation. It is therefore indispensable – he says – that every step towards autonomy is accompanied by a clear and binding system of equalization, that takes into account the real needs of the less developed territories and compensate the infrastructure, employment and social delay accumulated over the years “.
«We cannot afford – continues Senese – that the reform is transformed into a secession of rights. We have already experimented, in health and in other sectors, what the unrequited decentralization entails: increase in inequalities, inefficiencies, passive mobility, impoverishment of the territories. Calabria deserves more. It deserves a reform that starts from the reconstruction of a solid and fair base for everyone. The unit of the country – concludes the general secretary of Uil Calabria – is not built by distributing asymmetrical powers, but guaranteeing the same rights, services and the same opportunities to every citizen, from Bolzano to Reggio Calabria. Without equity there is no reform that holds ».