“In the next few months we will face deadlines that will affect the life of our Association, but in these weeks our activities continue, let’s just think about what we are doing on the PNRR thanks to the competence center that we have activated and which allows us to have numbers and information that describes the situation in the area and that sees us committed to bringing the Municipalities out of the problems that arise.” Thus the President of ANCI Lombardia, Mauro Guerrastarted the work of the Association’s Assembly which was held this morning in Milan.
The event opened with the memory of the Mayor of Castellanza, Mirella Cerini, who recently passed away, and with a greeting to the Vice President of ANCI Lombardia, Lucia Mantegazza Mayor of Gessate, “and with her to all the Mayors and territories who have been affected by last week’s flood events on which we will have to reflect” highlighted Guerra.
The President announced that, for “the first part of September, we are organizing an appointment that will involve all the Municipalities of Lombardy for a discussion with the new Administrators on some issues that we will have to face, in particular those that put budgets in difficulty, I am thinking of example to expenses on minors.”
For Guerra “an important issue is that linked to the shortage of staff and the difficulty of recruitment, also given the salary differences between employees at different institutional levels.”
“We will have many issues to think about, work on and fight for” stated the President of ANCI Lombardia, such as “the issue of differentiated autonomy, a issue that must not only concern the Regions but all institutional levels, and also refers to the question of reorganization territorial, in particular in Lombardy, where there is a large number of municipalities. Furthermore, the question of the Consolidated Law on Local Authorities and that of subnational taxation and autonomies remains open.”
For Guerra “there is therefore a game that goes from the sustainability of the current expenditure of the Municipalities, to the reorganization of local taxation, to the reorganization of the Consolidated Law and the reorganization of autonomies and which shows us that we will have a particularly challenging and important season ahead, with many risks, but which tries to reorganize a somewhat disorganized structure.”
In conclusion, the President considered that “this year we will have the congressional assemblies of ANCI Lombardia and ANCI nationally before us” and, faced with this amount of work, “one thing that must comfort us is that we have an apparatus that works and does faced with an incredible amount of commitments, managing to find margins to do more and launch new challenges.”
Guest speeches
The General Secretary of ANCI brought his contribution to the Assembly, Veronica Nicotra, who underlined how “we are aware that in Lombardy you are facing a particularly challenging administrative session, which sees the Administrators involved in the electoral campaign. In recent months we find ourselves in a partly new institutional phase, we are in the process of negotiating with the Government regarding the financial aspects and we are defining positions on all issues such as the highway code and the local police, the bills on reconstruction and much more; very important issues that will see the Association engaged on multiple fronts.”
For Nicotra, “the most urgent issues concern the discussion and sharing with the Ministry on the cuts that have been made and are being announced, even if the perspective is rather narrow. Regarding the reforms, we are waiting to understand what and how it is moving. There are many issues that we have been addressing in recent months and weeks, the PNRR is in a phase that we consider satisfactory, furthermore we continue to follow the issues highlighted by the Municipalities, and we invite the Bodies to continuously exchange.”
Looking at the upcoming deadlines, the General Secretary recalled that “the Association awaits the phase of rotation of positions which will take place in the coming months and will culminate with the Turin Assembly in November. Furthermore, in July, we will have an appointment with the PNRR initiative in Rome where everyone is invited.”
The President of UPL spoke next, Luca Santambrogio, who highlighted how “the cuts that hit the Municipalities in recent years also fall on the Provinces, therefore let’s pay common attention to the issue. We are waiting for news on the reforms, and, as Provinces, we have highlighted the problem of hiring, because our institutions are struggling to be attractive and with the continuous reduction of staff the institutions are going into crisis.”
Santambrogio noted how “The provinces have become the homes of the Municipalities, they provide many services, and the most important theme that we carry forward is that of the PNRR. Finally, the theme that unites us is that of differentiated autonomy, because it sees the involvement of all levels of local authorities and, without economic and human resources, these reforms will not be able to be completed.”
He then took the floor Gianni Rossoni, President of the Council of Local Authorities of Lombardy, who expressed “thank you for what ANCI Lombardia today represents at a regional level for all the Municipalities, since it manages to give a voice to the territories and carry out a great job of representation, communication and information. ANCI also guarantees an important contribution to the CAL on many aspects, in particular on the opinions that we are required to give to the Regional Council, and I am thinking in particular of the topic of differentiated autonomy, on which Lombardy has been ahead of its time and has been ready since 2018. The reform of the CAL envisaged the direct involvement of the Council of Local Authorities, representing the local authorities, in the procedure for the implementation of differentiated autonomy. Also for this reason, we must be ready to represent the Municipalities and all local authorities, guaranteeing their requests in this important process.”
