The regional council of Puglia, Italy, has made the most significant Italian local government body investment in private equity in two years by committing €22m ($22m) to early-stage investments.

The council has just published a tender in the European Commission's journal asking private equity firms to apply for the mandate. The size of the mandate is more than the entire commitment made by Italian government agencies last year, which amounted to €20m. In 2000 the comparable figure was €56m.