The EU Commission has given a positive preliminary assessment of the payment of the fifth installment of Italy’s PNRR. In December, the request was for 52 targets-goals for 10.6 billion (net of pre-financing for 1.6 billion). The amount of the installment has risen to 11.1 billion (3.2 grants and 7.9 loans) for 54 targets-goals with the advance, apparently including two objectives of the sixth installment. The EU executive stated that it could not assess the achievement of a 110 million goal for methodological reasons. The approved payments in the Italian PNRR now total 113.5 billion out of 194.4 billion.
The fifth installment of the Italian PNRR includes 9 targets-goals related to green transition, waste, and water management. Among the various results, it emerges that by the end of 2023, Italy had closed 22 illegal landfills (out of 34, more than 60%). It improved waste recycling, reducing the gap between the national average and the region with the worst results by 9%. Among the 5 measures planned for sustainable mobility are, for example, 200 kilometers of completed cycle paths in metropolitan areas. And the development of infrastructure for public transport with an additional 231 kilometers. In the regional transportation sector, over 3,000 new zero or low-emission buses were purchased. For the digital transition of public administration, 17 milestones and targets were planned. As of December 31, 2023, an additional 6,678 public administrations have adopted digital payment systems PagoPA (+71% from 2021) and have added the service with the Io app to 10,675 public administrations (+251% over 2021). There were measures to strengthen the business climate encompassing 13 milestones and targets. Another 3 targets were related to social policies: within this scope, 55,000 scholarships were provided to students with socio-economic difficulties. In the health sector, among other things, each province and autonomous region had at least one telemedicine project and support was provided to 500 pharmacies in small communities. For the goal that currently leads to a suspension of the approval for the 110 million payment out of the total value requested with the Italian PNRR’s fifth installment, the EU executive has reportedly deemed itself unable to conclude its assessment. The issue lies in the formulation of the Council’s execution decision that approved the Italian plan, which does not provide clarity on the methodology to be applied to assess the target’s achievement. The goal concerns reforms in public procurement and, specifically, the reduction of the average time between the award of a contract and the delivery of infrastructure works by 10%. Italy has already expressed its willingness to submit a reasoned request to modify the Council’s decision, and everything should be resolved within a few months.
Meloni: ‘The PNRR refutes those who bet on our failure’
“I am very happy to announce that the European Commission has approved the payment of the fifth installment of the PNRR today.” This is stated by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in a video message, emphasizing that “it is excellent news for Italy, it is excellent news for citizens. It is news – she added – that once again refutes those who had bet on the failure of this government, those who secretly hoped that Italy could lose Europe’s money to gain an electoral advantage, as they said. But it did not go that way. And with the work of these months, we have shown that all those predictions were wrong. We have shown it by doing what we do best, which is to study the dossiers, work, and achieve concrete results.”
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