The pandemic caused a 22.8 billion hole in the coffers of Italian local authorities. The estimate was made by the EU Committee of the Regions.

The footprint left in 2020 by the pandemic on the local administrations of our country - emerges from the report - is heavy: in addition to the higher expenses due to the need to cope with the health emergency related to Covid, the resulting loss of revenue was also recorded from the crisis. In practice, the loss is in absolute terms the highest in Europe after Germany, where Laender and the city reported a red of almost 112 billion.

As far as Europe is concerned, the so-called “scissor effect” for local authorities is worth 180 billion euros, ie the sum of the higher expenses due to the pandemic (125 billion) and lost revenues (55 billion).

And, as the president of the Committee, Apostolos Tzitzikostas warned, all this "could lead to cutting public services, unless more resources urgently arrive from EU and national funds to support local projects and programs".

If the coffers of the Italian administrations, which risk a hole of 23 billion euros, have lost about 9% of revenues, in relative terms the greatest losses were recorded in Cyprus (25%), Bulgaria and Germany (15%). While the lowest in Romania, Denmark, Greece, Hungary and Estonia (no more than 2%).

(Unioneonline / ss)