Premier Giorgia Meloni said in a
newspaper interview Sunday that Italy was on schedule with the
European Union to enact the post-COVID National Recovery and
Resilience Plan (NRRP), which has reportedly got bogged down,
and that a paradigm shift was needed in care for the land after
floods in Emilia-Romagna killed 15 people and caused billions of
euros of damage last week.
"We are on schedule", said Meloni, when asked about the NRRP in
a long interview in Il Messaggero.
"Our plan," Meloni explained, 'is the largest in Europe, and a
review of it requires careful verification to avoid the risk of
doing things hastily and badly.
"The deadline for proposing changes is 31 August 2023 and
(European Affairs Minister Raffaele) Fitto is working with the
European Commission and the individual administrations to ensure
the full implementation of the interventions".
Italy has been assigned the largest single chunk of the recovery
fund, almost 200 billion euros, in grants and low-interest
loans, whose issuance is conditional on enacting a set of key
structural reforms and other schemes like boosting the health
system and building new schools and nurseries.
Asked by Il Messaggero about the deadly and devastating floods
in Emilia Romagna, Meloni said "Making Italy safe is an
epoch-making challenge. We are unfortunately suffering decades
of missed choices and delays and the mistaken idea that land
care was not a strategic investment. We must change paradigm".
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