National Strategy for recovery and re-use of confiscated assets with cohesion policies
The "National strategy for recovery and re-use of confiscated assets with cohesion policies' support", foreseen by the 2017 Budget Law (Article 1, paragraph 611), represents a coordination, guidance and supporting tool for National Administrations, local authorities and all those actors involved in various capacities in the management of confiscated assets by the means of projects which, relying on an original situation of territorial disadvantage, find significant support also in cohesion policies, all for the common objective of returning to the community the use of these assets that offer development opportunities for the territories.
The Strategy was approved with Resolution 53/2018 and is guided by the General Objective of effectively and efficiently using real estate and corporate assets confiscated from organized crime, by enhancing the interventions also supported by cohesion policies, and is divided into 3 Specific objectives:
Specific Objective 1 - Strengthening the capacity and cooperation of the institutional actors responsible for the process of freezing, preserving the value and return to the community of illegally acquired assets
Specific Objective 2 - Policies for the management and preserving the value of confiscated real estates
Specific Objective 3 - Disposal of the confiscated assets as re-entry into the legal economy circuit from the organized crime assets.
The implementation of the Strategy at a territorial level also takes into account these Memorandum of Understanding related to legality and security signed starting from 2017 with the individual Regions concerned for the implementation of actions in these sectors with the aim of integrating the funds of national and regional programming for cohesion policies at the territorial level.
Following the approval of the Strategy, the envisaged verifications have been launched by the central Steering Committee composed by the representatives of the National Agency for Confiscated Assets (ANBSC), the representatives of the Department for the Cohesion Policies of the Presidency of the Council (today Department for Cohesion Policies and the South), the representatives of the ex Agency for Territorial Cohesion, the representatives of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (RGS-IGRUE), of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as the representatives of regions appointed by the State-Regions Conference.
The Steering Committee proposed to CIPE the financing of a Plan for the recovery and re-use of exemplary confiscated assets, aimed at financing investments dedicated to confiscated real estates, particularly relevant in terms of size, symbolic value, criminal history, sustainability and development prospects, that require a supra-local direction and commitment for preserving their value.
CIPE has taken steps to finance this plan with a series of resolutions, and in particular:
- Resolution no. 49/2019, which allocates €15 million from the 2014-2020 DCF for development of the agro-industrial business and related “La Balzana” farm in Santa Maria La Fossa (Caserta) into a park to promote the produce and foodstuffs typical of the Campania region;
- Resolution no. 61/2020, which allocated €10 million from the 2014-2020 DCF for a specific axis of projects aimed at supporting public bodies engaged in making use of sequestered assets in southern Italy that have been qualified as “exemplary”. In particular: a) calls for proposals; b) the definition of operating plans; and c) the elaboration of definitive or executive plans based on studies of technical and economic feasibility and support documentation.
The Strategy recognizes great importance to improving the information and communication support to the confiscations topic, to the consistency of properties and on recovery and enhancement interventions aimed at improving the quality of these policies.
For this purpose the Strategy provides various actions aimed at ensuring greater transparency of data on confiscated assets, and strengthening the integration with other information sources, starting from data on projects financed by public funds for their value preservation and public reuse. This commitment was also taken in the framework of the IV Action Plan of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), approved in June 2019 (here it is possible to monitor the implementation of the various commitments undertaken - from 1.25 to 1.33).
