ROME – A great opportunity to relaunch Italy which, however, neglects the automotive sector. This is the assessment made by Unrae, the association of foreign manufacturers in Italy, of the PNRR recently transmitted to the EU Commission. This is why he asks the Draghi government to repair by finding other regulatory tools to insert the necessary measures for the sector, also hoping for the establishment of an Automotive Table.
” The general structure of the NRP offers a unique opportunity to make up for the country’s delays in terms of reforms and revitalization of the economy and employment. For this reason – explains the president of Unrae Michele Crisci in a note – we were surprised not to find adequate attention to the automotive sector, which has a preponderant weight in the mobility of people and goods and which represents the most committed production sector in research. and in investments for the ecological transition “. The Association of Foreign Houses considers “the measures indicated in the plan can be shared overall, even if they can be improved”. For example, it considers “the upgrading of the railway and high-speed network, the construction of cycle paths, the electric and hydrogen charging infrastructures, interventions that go in the direction of decongesting road traffic and favoring the abatement of harmful emissions” . ” However, we believe – underlines Crisci – that a strategic plan for ecological transition risks achieving halved results if, as happened, ad hoc measures for the automotive supply chain are left out “.
For the president of Unrae, the large car park is absent from the Pnrr: “A chronic and serious patient, one of the oldest in Europe in all its sectors, from cars to industrial vehicles, who is difficult to replace in short times with iron care ”. On the other hand, it is ” necessary and urgent to incentivize their replacement with new, more ecological vehicles, given that 90% of goods and people currently travel by road. Another sore point is the chapter of the reforms which, ” while full of intentions to remove bureaucratic burdens and obstacles to investments, ignore ” both the reform of the Highway Code, an intervention necessary to adapt now obsolete rules to new forms of mobility and international regulations, as well as any reference aimed at changing the tax framework of the sector, which penalizes us compared to the main EU countries. For example, in the excessive taxation on company cars, in the reduced tax deduction for individuals and in the lack of tax relief for road haulage companies that invest in latest generation vehicles “.
“The Government – concludes Crisci – will at this point have to find the regulatory instruments suitable for the automotive measures that have not found space in the PNRR. For this reason, we also hope for the establishment of an Automotive Table aimed at identifying the best solutions to strategically include the sector in the country’s modernization programs, in favor of future generations, without having to continually resort to urgent and short-term measures. “.
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