Brussels, 25/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Italian operational programme for “Enterprise and Competitiveness” was adopted by the European Commission on Wednesday 24 June. With a budget of €2.4 billion, €1.7 billion of which will come from the European regional development fund (ERDF), the programme will seek first and foremost to reinvigorate investment in the industrial fabric those Italian regions lagging furthest behind.
In conjunction with the EUROPE 2020 strategy, the goals of the programme are looking to increase cooperation among businesses, and especially among SMEs, in research and innovation, to make the Italian economy more international, to connect close to 85% of the country to the ultra-high-speed internet network (100Mbps or higher) and to increase the share of renewable energy consumed by 9%.
“This investment package will support Italian enterprises, especially SMEs, to fully exploit their innovation potential and develop their competitiveness, with the aim of creating quality jobs”, said Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Cretu.
The programme is an integral part of a series of 50 operational programmes within the framework of cohesion policy for Italy which has been allocated over €32 billion for the 2014-2020 period. Some regions of Southern Italy have faced difficulties both in absorbing funding from the previous period, from 2007 to 2013, and in presenting operational programmes for the new period (see EUROPE 11338). (Pascal Hansens)