In 3 southern regions, over 80% of municipalities are in financial distress

Over 80% of Italian municipalities declared in financial distress over the past five years are located in three southern regions: Campania, Calabria and Sicily. This emerges from the Court of Auditors' report to Parliament on municipalities in crisis. "The critical aspect — say the auditors — is the strong territorial concentration: Sicily, Calabria and Campania account for 63.6% of the crisis procedures activated overall and 80.4% of the declared distresses." Specifically, the report further notes that in Calabria 54% of municipalities have experienced at least one procedure, in Sicily 41% and in Campania 39%. "In the hardest-hit territories — the document reads — crises cannot be attributed solely to the management of the individual entity, but reflect economic, social, organizational and institutional factors affecting the entire multilevel system, with strong heterogeneity of regional interventions, ranging from financial support and technical assistance to prevention funds and autonomous monitoring systems." Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA