Trivial sums paid to companies, “zero comma” compensation, in the face of an unacceptable narrative made up of announcements of 100% refunds, while the reality is made up of bureaucracy, slowness and funds never arriving. There are many things that don’t add up in the process of rebuilding the economic fabric that should have followed the flood of May 2023. “Let’s hurry, it’s late” is the cry of alarm with which Legacoop brought together its companies in Ravenna, one year after the beginning of those tragic events, to take stock of the situation in front of over 200 cooperators. The location of the initiative is the Copura warehouses, one of the 22 companies associated with Legacoop Romagna that were invaded by water and have now restarted thanks mainly to the efforts of their members and the cooperative system. “The data made public in the press by the commissioner structure in April – explained the president of Legacoop Romagna, Paolo Lucchi – tell us that until a few days ago the applications completed on the Sfinge platform were 775, of which just 63 had passed the Invitalia check There were about forty cases ready for liquidation, for a value of 1.5 million euros, but there were 29 cases that had received a first part of the contribution, for a total of 400 thousand euros. Can anyone explain these figures to us, given that almost 90 thousand people were damaged by the flood, of which 16 thousand businesses, and the estimated damage in Emilia-Romagna is 8.5 billion, of which 3.5 to private individuals. We have been promised 100% compensation, but is it? It’s increasingly difficult to declare oneself optimistic.” “A truly worrying chapter concerns the agricultural companies affected by the flood – added the Ravenna coordinator of Legacoop Romagna, Mirco Bagnari -, because nothing has yet arrived from the State. Instead, European funds from the EU crisis reserve have been disbursed which bring the funds reaching the primary sector to around 150 million. As regards public reconstruction, the damage to infrastructure is estimated at around 5 billion, but the total resources provided by the Government and the Commissioner’s Structure were less than a tenth they concern the impossibility of recovering movable assets lost following the flood and the failure to activate the tax credit mechanism, in addition to the problems with the PNRR”. “The cooperatives associated with Legacoop Romagna – concluded the president of Legacoop, Simone Gamberini — they suffered around 45 million euros in damage, but the flood hit a very large territory which also includes Bologna, Reggio Emilia and Modena, an area worth several tens of billions of GDP. Unfortunately, the Government’s bombastic declarations of commitment in the days following the disaster were not followed by facts and a year later we are still waiting for full reimbursement of the damages suffered. The commissioner structure, with which we have actively collaborated in recent months, has had to operate with ordinary bureaucratic procedures which have severely slowed down the disbursement of refreshments. We have fully done our part to not leave cooperatives and communities alone, mobilizing more than six million euros of solidarity resources, and we will continue to do so. This is also why we demand answers and expect a sense of responsibility and respect from the institutions for those who risk falling into resignation”. Many testimonies from the affected cooperatives, including that of Copura, the host company, which through the speakerphone of its president Corrado Pirazzini retraced the sequence of bureaucracy, announcements and inexplicable slowness that the victims of the climate catastrophe had to face. Numerous institutions intervened: Irene Priolo, vice-president and councilor for Soil Defense and Civil Protection of the Emilia-Romagna Region, the vice-prefect added of Ravenna Pierluca Castelli, the president of the Province of Ravenna, Michele De Pascale, the president of the Province of Forlì-Cesena, Enzo Lattuca, and the president of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Stefano Bonaccini. Legacoop Romagna represents approximately 380 associated companies in the provinces of Forlì-Cesena, Ravenna and Rimini, with a production value of over 7.7 billion euros, over 320 thousand members (including all types of members: workers, producers, consumers) and more than 28 thousand workers. Federcoop Romagna is the national hub specializing in services to cooperatives which reports to Legacoop Romagna. Around a hundred professionals work within it in the accounting, tax, legal, labour, environmental and advanced consultancy fields.
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