On a visit to the Empoli area, Metropolitan Mayor Dario Nardella made a stop in Empoli together with Mayor Brenda Barnini, deputy mayor of the Metropolitan City of Florence.
Nardella made a tour inside the most important public building sites currently underway: buildings in Empoli's historic centre that are undergoing structural redevelopment.
Together with Brenda Barnini, he visited the most evocative spaces of the old 'San Giuseppe' hospital, which, as part of the HOPE project financed by the Region of Tuscany and the European Union, will see the requalification and consolidation of the structures that will become a reference point for services and for citizens passing through the city's historic centre.
He then visited the 'Renato Fucini' public library, whose historic building has been completely renovated and consolidated and will reopen to the public in the coming months with new furnishings and a valuable restoration of the shelves in the Tassinari Room. "The Empoli area is a fundamental part of the Florentine metropolitan area. I believe that the metropolitan city is making many investments in this territory. However, the merit for the transformation of Empoli and the other areas lies primarily with the mayors. I was very impressed by the projects of this city regarding the old hospital and the redevelopment of the library. As the Metropolitan City we are committed to help Empoli to grow more and more and to transform itself into a city able to face the challenges of this time", said Dario Nardella. A final remark by Nardella on the great opportunity represented by the PNRR: "For Tuscany, for Florence and for the entire metropolitan area it is a historic opportunity. But in order to seize it fully, at least three conditions must be met. The first is to simplify bureaucracy, and this applies not only to businesses, which are burdened every year with a cost of 57 billion euro due to too much red tape, but also to public institutions; we mayors and local administrators know how difficult it is to plan a project, open a building site and deal with any administrative disputes. All this must be greatly simplified, always with a view to great transparency.
The second condition: having the professionalism and skills to implement 222 billion public works in our country, which means contracting authorities, and municipalities in this case need technicians, architects, engineers and planners who are up to this challenge.
Finally, there is a need for the central government to have real confidence in municipal administrations: we are on the front line, we are in constant contact with citizens, we know what it means to manage a construction site. The Government must have more confidence in the municipalities and should give us the opportunity to joint the table where decisions are taken for the implementation of the National Reform Programme, because it concerns our citizens and mayors cannot be left out.
"I sincerely thank Dario Nardella for his visit", said Brenda Barnini Mayor of Empoli. "Empoli has been on the road to urban regeneration for some years now, thanks to an important capacity for planning and intercepting European funds. This capacity will serve us and is serving us very well also to take advantage of the opportunities linked to the National Recovery Plan and the future programming season of European funds. Being an integral part of the Metropolitan City of Florence and therefore having strategic planning tools for the whole area and clear objectives for our city is certainly an advantage that we intend to strengthen and exploit more and more."
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