EU verhoogt budget regionale fondsen voor Italië om voormalig Maffiabezit om te vormen tot scholen, speelplaatsen en pastafabrieken (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU is topping up the regional money for Italian projects transforming seized Mafia properties into schools, playgrounds and pasta factories, despite pressure and attempts from the criminal networks to hijack the initiatives.
The EU's regional policy budget is paying almost half of Italy's "Security for Development" programme worth €1.2 billion over the period 2007-2013. Its chief aim is to fight organised crime networks in the southern Italian regions of Calabria, Campania, Apulia and Sicily.
Of this total, €91 million will be spent on projects to convert former mafia lands and property. The Italian legislation allows state authorities to seize assets from convicted mobsters and turn them into community projects, aimed at boosting local legal employment and creating an "anti-mafia culture".
This is a considerable increase on the past seven-year EU budget from 2000-2006 when only €11 million were allocated to this purpose.
"It's crucial to support any efforts to reduce organised crime," regional policy commissioner Pawel Samecki said Tuesday, explaining that the success of the first projects justified the increase of funding in this area.
He also added that the "same strict financial rules and controls will apply," despite calls from the deputy of the Italian police force, Nicola Izzo to put more "flexible" rules in place.
That would only encourage gangsters to try and tap the EU money, as the risk of infiltration by the criminal networks and pressure to hijack the public tenders was constant, civil workers said.
"There is a real danger of Mafia penetration. We had attempts from them to infiltrate the organisations managing the projects. They are usually young people, and some have been approached by the mafia to work for them and hijack the project from within," said Lucio Guarino, the head of the "Development and legality" association in Sicily, during the same press conference.
Mafia networks were "obviously" interested in public tenders for these projects, as many gangsters operate in the construction sector.
In order to avoid public and EU money of being hijacked by the gangsters, developers of such projects keep close contacts with the police and prosecutors and get information on the companies interested before the actual public tenders take place, Mr Guarino explained.
"We have so-called anti-Mafia certificates which are required for the contractors, looking not only at direct, but also at indirect links," he said. "But of course, there is always this danger," he admitted.
His organisation has developed several local projects on mafia land, such as the "Garden of Remembrance" playground near Palermo. The property on which it was constructed was seized from Giovanni Brusca, jailed for life for more than 100 counts of murder, including the brutal killing of Giuseppe Di Matteo. The son of a police informant, 15-year-old Di Matteo was strangled after 779 days of captivity and his body dissolved in acid, on Brusca's orders.
The total investment amounted to €931,000. Half of it was paid for by the EU.
Selling land back to the mafia
Meanwhile, a controversial amendment to the current assets seizure law was passed in the Italian Senate and is under review in the Chamber of Deputies. If enacted, it would allow assets to put up for auction if no social projects can be found for them. This has risen concern that mobsters could find ways to buy back their property.
"It is ironic that while the EU decided to allocate large funds for social purposes for the redevelopment of the property confiscated from criminal organisations, the Italian government opted instead to put them up for auction," Italian Liberal MEP Luigi de Magistris told EUobserver.
A former prosecutor who investigated the links between politicianss and mobsters, Mr de Magistris said the "mafia of the third millennium" was much more sophisticated in penetrating tenders and even buying back their seized assets.