European Affairs Minister Raffaele Fitto said yesterday the government will outline in the coming days a realistic plan for Italy’s massive post-Covid National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP).
The NRRP seeks to make the Italian economy greener and more modern with the help of almost €200billion in EU grants and low-interest loans. It also includes €6billion for natural disaster prevention.
But there are fears it will not be possible to complete all the related projects by the deadline of 2026. As a result, Rome is in talks with Brussels on possible changes to the plan.
The European Commission said Friday that it was still making assessments for approval of the long-delayed payment of the third tranche of NRRP funding worth €19billion.
Payments are made by the EU on condition that agreed targets have been met. To date Italy has received nearly €67billion in funding. They have been largely in support of the ecological transition and technological innovation.
“In the coming days the government will draw attention to clear goals and a path to solve the long-standing problems, regarding which it is necessary for the trend to be reversed, in relation to the proposed changes to the NRRP and the 21-27 cohesion programme,” Fitto said at the Festival del Lavoro (Labour Festival) in Bologna.
“This is an operation of realism and it is necessary to have the courage to say so. I think that it would be irresponsible to say that everything is fine and not highlight the necessary corrections that need to be made.
“The work we are doing with all the (government) departments goes precisely in this direction”.
