Data Card - Confiscated assets, cohesion policies and the NPRR

21/03/2022

On 21st March 2022 is celebrated the "National Day of Remembrance and Commitment in memory of all victims of mafia", established by law dated 8th March 2017 after the Libera association had promoted a civic demonstration for over twenty years on that date marked as the first day of Spring.

This year the anniversary is celebrated while the public Call for the presentation of projects for the enhancement of confiscated assets funded by the European Union in the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, is open (until March 31), as part of the Next Generation EU initiative.

The overall amount committed by this public Call is 250 million euros and the resources are intended for project proposals aimed at the redevelopment of entire areas and the enhancement of assets confiscated from the mafias for the benefit of the community and the new generations. The Call also reports a second procedure relating to negotiated consultation, which may take place in consideration of the opportunity to identify a method of financing interventions which, due to their size, symbolic value, sustainability and development perspectives, require consultation between several institutionally competent actors, with an amount equal to 50 million euros. A comparison of data highlights the importance of this intervention: as of 31st August 2021, the total public funding for the 565 projects monitored by OpenCoesione in the focus dedicated to confiscated assets is equal to 332.8 million euros, relating to interventions carried out or in the 2007-2013 and 2014-2020 programming periods of cohesion policies. The total amount of new financements, for projects to be selected by June 2024 and to be carried out within the next two years, is thus equal to 90% of those used up to now in projects for the enhancement of confiscated assets.

Confiscated assets and the NRRP

The public Call - published on the website of the Agency for Territorial Cohesion - is addressed to the 8 Regions of Southern Italy. Projects can be proposed by Municipalities, Provinces, Metropolitan Cities and Regions, also in consortium or partnership. These subjects must be recipients of a confiscated property registered in the unavailable assets of the Entity and develop a project proposal for enhancement, which necessarily also involves the recovery or re-functionalization of the asset. Among the interventions admitted there are also those of demolition and reconstruction, restructuring and / or adaptation for institutional or social purposes, or economic, with the constraint of reuse of the proceeds for social purposes, for the restitution to the community and reintegration of these assets into the  legal circuit of the territories to which they belong.

The choice to address exclusively to public bodies - explains a note from the Minister for the South and Territorial Cohesion - "is given by the need to respect the tight deadlines set by the NRRP and to avoid, therefore, procedures that - in other cases - would have been longer and more complex. " The Minister, urged by civil society organizations involved in the management and enhancement of confiscated assets, however specified that "local authorities can in any case involve Third Sector entities from this planning stage, as explained in a note signed by the general manager of the Agency for Territorial Cohesion. This possible involvement is indeed rewarded by a specific evaluation criteria included in the Call announcement ".

Other reward criteria are also envisaged which concern in particular the enhancement for the purpose of an anti-violence center for women and children or shelters and for the enhancement for the purpose of nursery schools or micro-kindergartens. The projects described in this Data Card refer to this theme. The objective of the Call is to carry out at least 200 enhancement interventions.


Confiscated assets and cohesion policies

Since the 2007-2013 programming period, cohesion policy has represented one of the tools for enhancing confiscated assets. The first pill that OpenCoesione dedicated to the topic, which referred to the data as at 31 December 2014, highlighted 190 interventions for a total financing of 151.5 million euros (including hard interventions, which provide for the restructuring and redevelopment of properties confiscated for the of their civil and soft reuse, to support the institutional capacity in the management of confiscated assets, education on legality and social inclusion). As already written, the number of projects monitored as of 31 August 2021 is instead equal to 595.

The significant increase is linked to the entry of data relating to the subsequent programming period, which in particular in the three-year period 2017-2019 saw 252 projects enter into monitoring. With the 2017 Budget Law (art. 1, paragraph 611), in the meantime, the "National strategy for the enhancement of confiscated assets through cohesion policies" was born, a tool for coordination, guidance and support for state administrations, local authorities and all those subjects who intervene in various ways in the management of confiscated assets.

Among the tools for the implementation of the National Strategy is the FSC EXEMPLARY CONFISCATED GOODS PLAN in the South, financed for 25 million euros with two successive resolutions of the CIPESS (Resolution No. 48/2019 and Resolution No. 61/2020). Currently, 3 projects are monitored, relating to the property "La Balzana", which foresees the construction of an agri-food park of typical products of the Campania Region, in the Municipality of Santa Maria la Fossa (CE). They are described in paragraph 5 of the Data Card that OpenCoesione dedicated to the assets confiscated in March 2021. The final design of the 3 lots is currently underway, a preparatory action for the preparation of tenders for the executive design and execution of the works, which should start by the end of 2022. In the meantime, in March of this year, the authorization procedures were started for the interventions on the second "exemplary confiscated property". This is Palazzo Fienga, a 12 thousand square meter building in Torre Annunziata (NA), confiscated from the Gionta clan, responsible in 1985 for the murder of the Campania journalist Giancarlo Siani. It will become a joint command.

The support of cohesion policies for the enhancement of confiscated assets will also continue in the next programming period 2021-2027. In fact, the text of the Partnership Agreement sent to Brussels by the Italian government states that "the ERDF and the ESF Plus also intervene to encourage the social use of assets confiscated from organized crime". Furthermore, "always in the context of a territorial strategy, in the territories with the highest concentration of assets confiscated from crime, social and / or productive revitalization paths can be defined starting from the enhancement of buildings that are significant for economic potential and symbolicity".

 

PROJECTS

FUNCTIONAL RECOVERY OF THE PROPERTY CLOSE TO THE M.U.S.A PARKING FOR THE WOMEN PROJECT IN ANTI-VIOLENCE CENTER AND REFUGE HOUSE

Cost: € 1,500,000.00

Duration: 14.5 months

Financial source: NOP ERDF ESF LEGALITY 2014-2020

Beneficiary: MUNICIPALITY OF CASALNUOVO DI NAPOLI


The project financed the requalification of property confiscated from organized crime to create a center for women victims of violence, in order to accompany their path of escape from the condition of discomfort and to start inclusion and training courses aimed at guaranteeing autonomy. The structure cleared of illegal occupations by some members of the Camorra clan was entrusted to the Municipality of Casalnuovo di Napoli by the National Agency for seized and confiscated assets. The project was born from the initiative of the Anti-violence Office of the Municipality of Naples. In 2021 the "house" was inaugurated by the Prefect of Naples, which is spread over an area of ​​over 1000 square meters and is structured on three levels: the top floor is intended for women removed from their family, while the ground floor is the anti-violence center (already active in the municipal area, since 2016 has welcomed over 150 women who have filed a complaint), while in the basement a playroom with a bistro bar has been set up in which the courageous women that have denounced the violence will be embraced and will start a path of escape from violence. The project also financed the renovation and furnishing of the premises that will allow the possible presence of minor-aged children.

 

REDEVELOPMENT WORK OF ASSETS CONFISCATED FROM ORGANIZED CRIME LOCATED IN VICO VI DUCHESCA N.12 AND VIA VITTORIO EMANUELE III, N.13 FOR THE CREATION OF A CENTER FOR THE INTEGRATION OF REGULAR IMMIGRANTS AND CENTER FOR THE RECEPTION OF WOMEN VICTIMS

Cost: € 1,499,984.27

Duration: 22 months

Financial source: NOP ERDF ESF LEGALITY 2014-2020

Beneficiary: Municipality of Naples

The project enables the recovery of two properties confiscated from organized crime for social purposes: the integration of legally resident migrants and the reception of women victims of trafficking. At the structure in vico VI Duchesca n. 12 in Naples, a multifunctional service center for citizens and foreigners will be built that will ensure various services to the territory, such as: job orientation, assistance for access to microcredit or for the creation of an industrial startup, as well as - for migrants who request it - planning a return to their own country. The aim of the project is to ensure social cohesion in an area that has recently suffered hardships related to congestion due to the assignment of new migrants, with consequent repercussions on the dynamics of coexistence. Also the structure in Via Vittorio Emanuele III n. 13 in Secondigliano is proposed as a center aimed at guaranteeing the territory a series of services that can promote the strengthening of people's autonomy and their social and work reintegration. In 2020, the Municipality of Naples launched the tender procedure for the start of the redevelopment works at both facilities and in 2021 the contract was awarded.

 

WELCOME HOUSE FOR EXPECTANT AND MOTHER GIRLS

Cost: € 285,611.68

Duration: 2 months

Financial source: ROP CONV ERDF SICILY 2007-2013

Beneficiary: MUNICIPALITY OF SAN GIUSEPPE JATO


In 2017 in San Giuseppe Jato (PA) the housing for single mothers and women victims of social hardship entitled "Rita Atria" was inaugurated. Rita Atria is considered the seventh victim of the Via D'Amelio massacre: she committed suicide at eighteen, a week after the murder attack on judge Paolo Borsellino, the one who had her convinced to become a witness of justice. The confiscated property was assigned to the Municipality of San Giuseppe Jato, which restructured the villa, transforming it into a reception house. The structure is made up of several floors: on the ground floor there is a reception room, while the 1st and 2nd floors house the rooms furnished with 11 beds for day and night use for users. The top floor is used as a living room, kitchen and common area. The services of the center for pregnant women and women with children in difficulty are managed by social cooperatives, awarded the tender for the assignment of the property and accredited by the Department of Family, Social Policy and Work.