The approval of differentiated autonomy by Parliament has not resolved, and has perhaps even exacerbated, the doubts about the reform and its social and economic impact in the South. While the Calabrian mayors protest vigorously asking the Region to challenge the text passed in Parliament and the president Roberto Occhiuto manifests calm, precisely the application aspects of the reform which are not yet clear induce Unindustria Calabria to a prudent evaluation approach, without however renouncing to underline some critical issues of differentiated autonomy which require clarifications and concrete political interventions.
«It must be said, first of all, that the first reasonable concern that the industrial world experiences regarding differentiated autonomy is related to the fact that it seems to be a measure approved hastily, or at least not in the times and ways it would have deserved, in terms of discussion and in-depth analysis, a measure so politically relevant that it is destined to have a significant impact”, he begins Aldo Ferrara, president of the Calabrian industrialists.
The position of Unindustria Calabria does not come after the approval of the reform in Parliament, but has already been made known several times by Ferrara, including during the hearing in the Parliamentary Commission for Regional Affairs in the meeting held in Catanzaro last February: «First of all – explains Ferrara – we believe it is necessary to immediately start an assessment of the economic impact to understand the repercussions of differentiated autonomy. This analysis would have been even more important before approval: it is a profound reform, which directly impacts the organization of the country and will imply changes that can never be neutral. Then, it is worth highlighting that the implications of the reform will be influenced by the administrative capacity of the territories and the effective capacity of the Regions to manage any transferred functions. Skills and a shortage of personnel endemic in the South make regional and municipal bureaucratic machines inefficient, representing today the most evident limit, in terms of concrete applicability of the reform. For this reason, autonomy should be coupled with a large hiring plan that gives local administrations the certainty of being able to cope with the new organization and the effective and efficient management of the resources and functions that will derive from it”.
