In this paper it has been analysed whether and how the Agency for Territorial Cohesion, just
recently established and intended to replace the Department for Development and Cohesion
Policies, can fit in the complex system of multilevel governance envisaged as per the Community
rules for the 2014-2020 programming period, which sees the participation of many individuals,
both public and private, operating at different levels of Government: central, regional and also
strictly local. In particular, it seeks to ascertain to what extent the solution adopted by the Italian
Government for promoting a more effective coordination among all actors involved, directly and
indirectly, in the implementation of the cohesion policy in our country in order to comply with the
proposals that had been presented – at both national and international level – by experts of the
different disciplines, which shall be considered for carrying appropriately out a critical ‘ex ante’
analysis of the system in question from a scientific point of view.