Good morning everyone. My thanks go to the President of the Marche Region, Francesco Acquaroli, and I wish to greet Minister Fitto and the members of parliament, the many local government officials, the mayors and all authorities present. 
I am very happy to be here today for this signing ceremony. I am pleased to be signing this agreement in Acqualagna, an extraordinary municipality I know well and that is also famous internationally, for its top-quality white truffles among other things. 

I am particularly happy to be doing this here, and allow me to digress somewhat, because this is also the municipality where a great Italian called Enrico Mattei was born. We remember him today, after marking the 61st anniversary of his passing yesterday.
We remember him for being one of the architects of Italy’s economic miracle after the Second World War, for being someone who was able to see opportunities where others saw only crisis, and to understand that a nation’s energy policy was fundamental for its sovereignty, for its geo-strategic positioning, to guarantee its national interests and to ensure partnerships with other countries that were not based on a paternalistic or predatory approach of looking down on them; he instead knew that great nations work together when they respect each other.

I am saying this to you because, as you know, this Government has taken inspiration from Enrico Mattei for one of its main strategic initiatives, which starts precisely with energy, with a crisis that can become an opportunity to reposition our nation geo-strategically.
Yes, we are in a very complex situation at international level, as you will have seen also from the latest news, because over the last few years we have had a number of shocks - the pandemic first and then the conflict in Ukraine - that have finally made us understand how problematic our dependence was, how much of a need there was for Italy and for Europe to rebuild its key supply chains, but I am convinced that the crises we are experiencing may hold a great chance to bring together difficulty and opportunity, just as Enrico Mattei did in his day: the difficulty Europe is facing today in terms of energy supplies, because it has allowed its supply chains to become too long and too uncontrolled, and the potential the African continent has to produce energy.

If we are able to bring these two things together and achieve strategic cooperation, also through a new relationship with African countries, allowing us to bring our mutual destinies closer together and support them, then we can solve several problems together. Why is Italy interested in this? Because we are the gateway. We are the gateway for this convergence, and our objective – through what you know as the ‘Mattei Plan’, which will be presented to Parliament in the coming weeks, in the coming months – is clearly to make Italy an energy supply hub for Europe. This geo-strategic role will once again place us at the heart of the Mediterranean; this is our historical role and one which we haven’t always known how to play. Forgive me for this digression, but who else should I tell these things to if not the citizens of the place where Enrico Mattei was born.

I am also happy to be presenting this agreement here in Acqualagna because, at the end of the day, we are talking about strategy, we are talking about vision, which, to some extent, has been the major thing missing in this nation’s politics over the last years. This agreement we are signing today with the Marche Region also talks about vision, development and medium and long-term choices, not choices that give you immediate consensus, perhaps with resources being used in lots of little drips with results yet to be seen, but rather strategic choices regarding the role that central government together with regional authorities have to let Italy’s local areas play.

The Marche Region is the second in Italy to sign this type of agreement with the Government and this, as President Acquaroli was saying, is thanks to the work the Region has done over the last months together with Minister Fitto, whom I thank for his valuable work.
Allow me to take another step back here to talk to you about the overall work the Government is doing: these agreements form part of extensive reform work that this Government has carried out to reverse the trend regarding cohesion policies.
As you know, development and cohesion policies are the instrument provided for by the European treaties to help reduce territorial inequalities and disparities; they are based on European structural funds, provide for national co-funding and are organised on the basis of multiannual programming. We unfortunately have to deal with the fact that, for too many years, Italy hasn’t exactly stood out for its implementation of cohesion policies, especially regarding the national component (EUR 78 billion with reference to the last programming period). We have experienced many delays over the years, and often a substantial inability to spend these resources in full. In other words, sometimes the money is there but what is missing is the ability to really spend it, to spend it in the right time frames, to spend it on real strategic priorities.

So, we have decided to take action in a structural way, initiating discussions between the Government and all Regions and Autonomous Provinces, with all levels involved, including the national level; Minister Fitto has put a lot of effort into this and we have done the painstaking work of verifying the implementation status of development and cohesion funds for the previous programming period (2014 to 2020), as well as working on the priorities to focus on for the new programming period (2021 to 2027). This work gave rise to the ‘Decreto Sud’, a decree through which we have reorganised this entire matter, substantially reorganising the fund and providing for these cohesion agreements. These are a new, negotiations-based programming tool (with negotiations here obviously referring to negotiations between regional authorities and central government), used to provide funding for the priorities that are put forward by the Regions, but that must be agreed by the Government. The reason for this is obviously not to take autonomy away from regional authorities, but rather to ensure that all this work corresponds to a single strategy, to ensure there is no overlap with other sources of funding, that resources are not wasted. This is therefore a regional, a local, strategy that must form part of a national strategy.

Our reform also includes other important innovations. For example, we have provided for a mechanism to reduce funding should resources not be spent, and likewise we have provided for substitute powers should there be delays that do not allow for planned work to be completed. There is therefore an increase in accountability in general, on the one hand also supporting national policy and, on the other, accountability because our aim is to transform Italy from a nation that, let’s say, is not exactly brilliant at managing these funds, into a nation that sets an example for others. I believe this is doable, because it is absolutely within our capabilities, within our reach.

The agreement we are signing today is part of this framework; as I was saying, the Marche Region is the second region to sign this type of agreement with the Government. With regard to cohesion resources, we are allocating EUR 333.6 million, funding 16 strategic investments for the Marche Region. 16 strategic investments are not a lot, and this is also a sign of what we are doing: we are choosing not to distribute few resources to a thousand small projects, but rather to focus on real strategic priorities and concentrate resources on those priorities, to ensure they are truly effective.

The Marche Region has opted to focus the majority of these resources on infrastructure and transport networks, meaning 70% of these resources will be used to complete roads and ensure ports can be fully used, as President Acquaroli was saying.

We agreed with this strategic choice, because, as you will recall, on many occasions I myself have denounced the paradox that this region lies in the centre of the Italian peninsula and yet is nevertheless isolated; as you will recall, on many occasions, I myself have denounced the fact that, yes, there is a North-South divide in Italy, but there is an East-West one too – there is also a divide between the Tyrrhenian coast and the Adriatic coast and that gap needs to be bridged just as the one between the North and South does.

I won’t list all the measures being funded by these resources, I will just mention one of the most important and strategic initiatives we are funding, which I believe to be of particular importance: the ‘Pedemontana delle Marche’ road network, developing a fast alternative to the region’s coastal road network. This offers a dual objective: on the one hand, of course, to reduce traffic congestion on the motorway along the Adriatic coast; on the other, to ensure easy, efficient and quick connections to and within the region’s inner areas because, also in this regard, how many times have we denounced the risk of small municipalities, municipalities in the country’s inner areas, becoming depopulated? However, we will clearly never be able to combat the depopulation of inner areas unless we have adequate connection infrastructure. I therefore fully share this priority and these priorities that the Marche Region has identified. This Agreement also includes a number of other measures that we are carrying out to strengthen the Marche Region’s road network which, as we were saying, has always been somewhat lacking, especially in inner areas.

In this regard, I am pleased to be able to say that, over these years, I have seen great commitment from President Acquaroli and the Marche Region, and I am pleased to be able to do our part today with these resources and with this agreement that focuses on this priority. It doesn’t end here, because in addition to the EUR 333.6 million from the Cohesion and Development Fund, we will be allocating more, as the President of the Region was saying: EUR 154.3 million from the ‘Rotation Fund’. Taking into account also the co-funding amount, which is equal to another EUR 44.5 million, with this agreement we are mobilising a total of EUR 532 million – more than half a billion euros.
With the rotation fund, we can also invest in other important areas; I am thinking of high-quality tourism, for example, of the issue of cultural policies, of enhancing the entrepreneurial fabric, training and safeguarding jobs.
Concrete facts, and I shall come to a close, to support the development of a region that is world-renowned for its resourcefulness and desire to improve. 
In essence, we want to put the Marche Region in a position to be able to compete on an equal footing, show its worth and prove that it can move fast, as it knows how and as I know it wants to.    
We are adding another building block to this, working all together, yes, with a view to enhancing this part of Italy, but above all with a view to enhancing our nation as a whole, and its role in the world.
Thank you.

[Courtesy translation]