National Strategy for Internal Areas

The National Strategy for Internal Areas (SNAI) is one of the 2014-2020 cohesion strategies. It aims at mitigation of the demographic decline that characterizes a significant part of the country largely covering the mountain areas - the Alps and the Apennines - but not exclusively. The objective of the SNAI is twofold: on one hand ensuring full access to essential citizenship services (local public transport, education, social and health services), on the other promoting economic development and improving the self-maintenance and sustainability of the territory.

The SNAI is supported by national resources, having as a priority the interventions related to the essential services, and by European funds (ERDF, ESF and EAFRD) that finance local development projects.

In the 2014-2020 programming period were selected 72 internal areas by the means of a public administrative procedure, carried out by all the central administrations that are part of the National Committee and by the Regions (or  Autonomous Province) concerned. The selected Areas include 1,060 Municipalities (data relating to he 2020 year).

On OpenCoesione is being published the focus dedicated to SNAI which also corresponds to a new navigation menu of the portal, starting from the "Strategies" section, which enables the consultation of projects according to a territorial features - different than administrative, that relate to the 72 internal areas in which the National Internal Areas Strategy is defined.

During the 2024-2020 programming period was established the Internal Areas Technical Committee (CTAI) coordinated by the Department for Cohesion Policies of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, with aim to ensure the supervision and monitoring of the implementation of the Strategy.

The strategy was also confirmed in the 2021-2027 period, with the provision of a further 56 new internal areas and the confirmation of 67 of the 72 internal areas identified in the 2014-2020 period.

Pursuant to Article 7 of Legislative Decree 124/2023, the new governance of the SNAI is entrusted to a "Control Cabin", established at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, a collegial body chaired by the Minister for European Affairs, the South, cohesion policies and the NPRR. This control cabin has the task of adopting the "National strategic plan for internal areas" (PSNAI), a document which identifies the areas of intervention and strategic priorities, with particular regard to the sectors of education, mobility and social services. health services, to which the resources of the State budget, available for this purpose can be allocated, taking into account the forecasts of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) and the European resources allocated to cohesion policies.

Within the section dedicated to SNAI on the website of the Department for cohesion policy are available details and information on the programming and the implementation of the Strategy. 

Tecnical document for the monitoring of the Strategy for Internal Areas, RGS-IGRUE ufficial communication n. 81830 dated 7th May 2018