What impact did Europeanization have on the governmental capacity of Italian regions? Are the regions successful in addressing the challenges and the opportunities of European integration? Is the participation in the EU a driving factor for decentralization in Italy? The paper, which reproduces a study commissioned by the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Compagnia di San Paolo, provides some answers to these questions. It is argued that the "European fitness" of Italian regions is highly asymmetric and so is their responsiveness to the challenges of multilevel governance. Moreover, while Italian regions have overall benefitted from the opportunities of European integration, there is still much to do in terms of institutional capacity, especially due to the overly complex system of intergovernmental relations
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