Resumen de Cooperation and Investment for the Development of Southern Italy from a European and International Perspective, 1950-1960

Francesco Dandolo

• This paper examines the significance of the development of south- ern Italy from an international perspective. Post-war underdevelop- ment and unemployment in the region were important issues in the context of European integration and the cold war. The European Investment Bank and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development ( IBRD) supplied funds to rectify the situation. In ad- dition, the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) viewed the development of southern Italy as a process that would likely increase trade between Italy and Eastern Europe.

  The backwardness of the Mezzogiorno was part of a vaster Euro- pean problem that also affected Greece, Turkey, and Yugoslavia.

  This paper also traces Italy’s bilateral agreements with European trading partners such as France and Germany, noting the particular opportunities they offered for the region’s progress. It suggests, in conclusion, that the European Union today should revisit develop- ment policies of the kind that in the 1950s successfully brought Italy into the European Economic Community.