Ex Post Evaluation of Cohesion Policies in the Strategic Planning of Italian Metropolitan Cities: Analysis for the Development of New Strategies

The Italian political-administrative geography defined by Law 52/2014, which established metropolitan cities as a new governance body, requires the adoption of new approaches in economic planning and in the definition of spending objectives with reference to European and national funding. The EU funding programme 2014–2020 is coming to an end. Therefore, this makes it possible to develop a first analysis of the expenditure relating to cohesion policy themes at regional, provincial/metropolitan and municipal level, to assess performance in view of the new period of European Union (EU) funding programme. In fact, the European institutions are currently in the process of drafting the new Cohesion Policy 2021–2027, which will have to face and resolve difficulties encountered in the previous phase, through three key rules: simplicity, flexibility and efficiency. The ambition is to make the EU Countries intelligent, sustainable and increasingly inclusive economies. Three priorities that mutually reinforce each other to achieve high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion in Member States. The aim is to analyze the expenditure related to cohesion policy (Environment and Research and Innovation sectors) in the last two period of EU funding programme in order to drive the new strategic decisions for the future period (2021–2027).