Spending the resources allocated by
the European Commission to Italy under its post-Covid national
recovery and resilience plan (NRRP) is a problem that the
government is addressing, but the situation is expected to
improve in the coming months as many projects move into the
construction phase, European Affairs Minister Emanuele Fitto
told parliament on Thursday.
NRRP spending "represents a difficulty, especially in the
implementation phase, but we are working on it and we will have
results in the coming months," said Fitto during a briefing in
the Lower House.
Italy's revised NRRP to make the economy greener, more modern
and less dependent on Russian fossil fuels is worth a total of
194.4 billion euro, of which 122.6 billion euro in loans and
71.8 billion euro in grants.
It covers 66 reforms - seven more than the original plan - and
150 investments that must be completed by the deadline of 2026.
Late last year the country received the fourth installment of
payment worth 16.5 billion euro, taking to around 90 billion
euro the total amount paid out so far by Brussels.
Fitto told parliament that so far Italy has spent 24 billion
euro in the period 2021-2022 and 21 billion euro last year.
"That adds up to 45 billion," continued the minister, inviting
lawmakers "to make a percentage comparison with other
countries".
One of the reasons for the delay in spending, said Fitto, is the
monitoring system Regis that still "needs to be implemented", in
addition to the fact that "many interventions still need to be
uploaded" onto the platform.
Further, he said that many interventions have involved a design
and tender phase, with low expenditure.
"Now we are entering the start-up phase for construction sites,
so it is conceivable that the figure for spending will increase
in the coming months," concluded Fitto.
Last week the European Commission said Italy had presented a new
request for "targeted" technical changes to its NRRP following a
complete revision of the plan approved by the European Council
last December.
The government of Premier Giorgia Meloni asked the Commission to
be allowed to make a series of substantial changes to the plan
to reflect changes in circumstances since it was drafted and
avoid the risk that some of the projects and reform goals linked
to it would not by completed by the deadlines.
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