This report analyses the decisions of the Ministry of the Interior of Argentina on the decentralization of the development policies of the provinces carried out under the new regulation, on the use of the FOFESO that confers to the provinces the possibility to invest in economic development projects, and compares them with the model of the EU cohesion policy.
The present document takes into account the results of the work carried out at the national ministries in Buenos Aires and in the provinces of Córdoba and Misiones. The work is focused on the decentralization of development policies, on the adoption of practices of multilevel governance and on training needs enabling the implementation of a management system similar to that of the ESI funds.
Argentina is a federal republic in which the provinces (which are similar to European NUTS 2 regions) have a wide institutional autonomy; they are responsible for education, health, public safety, and have concurrent powers with the central government in all areas of economic development. The municipalities benefit from a political and institutional autonomy in their territory which are regulated by the Constitutions of the provinces. In fact, the provincial constitutions determine the degree of autonomy, the competences, and the extension of the territory in which they operate.
The responsibilities on economic development are not regulated precisely in the sense that there is no normative basis, nor a systematic operational praxis, providing a subdivision of the fields of action within shared competences for economic development. In fact, from the interviews with the ministries and the provinces, there seem to be no mandatory standard procedures of institutional coordination between ministries, provincial and municipal authorities.