MILANO – On the one hand, Italy becomes a “net borrower” from Europe, that is it collects more than it pays to the community finances, thanks to the Pnrr. But on the other hand, his difficulty in ‘grounding’ funding continues to give cause for concern, albeit with some timid steps forward. Even more in the light of the point above, or the fact that the money available is always more.
The flows between Rome and Brussels
This is what emerges from the survey of the Court of Auditors on the financial relationship between Rome and Brussels. According to the accounting magistrates, with the funds of the Pnrr Italy passes from contributor to recipient within the European Union. The 2021 payments with which Italy participated, by way of own resources, in the budget of the European Union amount to 18.1 billion euros, while on the opposite side, the EU has allocated resources of 26.724 billion to our country, of which 10,198 linked to the Pnrr. According to what emerges from the 2022 Annual Report on Italy/EU financial relations and on the use of European funds, this is an overall increase of 129.2% which has in fact reversed the Italian position from that of contributor to that of net recipient on the side of European funds.
However, the accounting judiciary specifies that Italy’s new position will only be assessed on the outcome of the investment program linked to the national recovery and resilience plans and, more generally, on the implementation of the expansive instruments present in the multiannual financial framework in force until 2027 .
The actual spending that goes in slow motion
And it is precisely in the light of the “significant interconnections” between the Pnrr and the European Structural Funds that the second observation made by the Court takes on particular importance. When he says that “the general financial implementation framework of the 2014-2020 programming gives rise to some elements of concern, mainly linked to the greater resources from Europe which still do not correspond to a positive trend in terms of payments”.
Despite the improvement in the percentage of the latter (55% as at 31 October 2022, against 48 in 2021), therefore, the ability to spend remains an Achilles’ heel. “The allocation of additional resources relating to the REACT-EU initiative, divided into 8 National Operational Programmes, has increased the overall budget for financial programming from 50.5 to 64.39 billion euros, in a regulatory framework that confirms the final deadline for expenditure eligibility of 31 December 2023. However, a demanding deadline, observe the accounting magistrates, despite the fact that all programs exceeded the spending target envisaged by the automatic decommitment rule, at 31 December 2022. As regards the financial implementation of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) as at 31 October 2022, the progress of expenditure reached 61.2% of the total financial envelope”.
As regards irregularities and fraud, “the 405 cases detected by the Court in 2021 (updated to June 2022) are slightly up on 2020, with a total amount (57.4 million euros) mostly referring to the expenses of -certified (that is, not impacting on the EU budget, but on the national and/or regional ones) and a prevalence on the agricultural policy and on the 2014-2020 programming, compared to the previous one, 2007-2013”.