Italy risks spending less than planned in the Recovery and Resilience Plan and is missing key deadlines for the disbursement of the third tranche of the Recovery fund.
European Affairs Minister Raffaele Fitto (Fratelli d’Italia/Ecr) first raised the alarm, telling Corriere della Sera that the spending would be insufficient.
“The NRP spending forecast when it was approved was €42 billion on 31 December, then it was corrected downwards to €33 billion a first time and to €22 billion last September”, the minister explained.
“In the coming days, we will take note of how much has been spent, I fear that the percentage of spending will not be very high and will be far from the €22 billion,” he admitted.
Several ministers in the Meloni government have admitted to struggling to meet the 55 targets agreed upon with the EU by the end of the year.
“We are all committed to reaching the targets on 31 December, but we must have the ability to look beyond this deadline,” said the European affairs minister.
In an attempt to underline the Meloni government’s willingness to work in synergy with Brussels, Fitto added: “It is important to work in agreement with the commission, and we will do so with a comprehensive report on the state of implementation of the NRP.”
Another challenge for Italy’s NRP will be the changes that the government intends to make to bring spending in line with the country’s new economic needs, which have changed since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and soaring energy prices.
EU Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Paolo Gentiloni, urged Italy to hurry up and tried to contextualise the situation by comparing it with that of other European countries.
“All countries have difficulties. Some have asked for postponements on the date of 2026, but they are not possible from a technical, political and legal point of view”, said Gentiloni.
Should there be any delays in implementation, they will have to be addressed, but “the main commitment is to try to respect the times and deadlines.”
(Federica Pascale | EURACTIV.it)
Source: euractiv.com
