In these weeks of the election campaign, the rise in energy prices and the prospect of an autumn with less gas have brought the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr) back to the center of the political debate, financed with over 190 billion euros by the European Union to revive the Italian economy after the covid-19 pandemic.
On the one hand, the center-right coalition, made up of the Brothers of Italy, Lega, Forza Italia and Noi moderati, promises a “revision” of the NRP in its program. On the other hand, the Democratic Party and the alliance between Action and Italia viva consider the plan as the agenda that the future government will have to follow in the coming years.
Giorgia Meloni’s party, given the lead in the polls, is the one most determined to intervene on the money coming from Europe. Former economy minister Giulio Tremonti, candidate in the elections with the Brothers of Italy, recently declared that the PNRR “was written in another era”, while the party’s program manager, Giovambattista Fazzolari, proposed to slow down the ecological transition envisaged by the plan to intervene on price increases.
The Pnrr can be changed, but the European rules draw precise limits, which prevent, for example, from diverting the resources of the plan to cut the cost of bills. Furthermore, it should not be forgotten that there is a strict timetable that must be respected in order to be able to receive funding.
The resigning government led by Mario Draghi is trying to achieve the greatest number of objectives before the change of executive, which will inherit the task of carrying out the implementation of the missing reforms and investments until 2026.
Article 21 of the regulation, which in February 2021 established the European fund with which the NRP is financed, establishes that Italy can present a “reasoned request” to modify its plan, if it can no longer carry it out, “in all or in part ”, due to“ objective circumstances ”. This article is often quoted by those who argue that the NRP should be revised, indicating the increases in the “objective circumstances”.
If the next government were to submit a request to change the plan, the timeframe would not be short: the European Commission, if it considers that the justifications brought by Italy are valid, evaluates the new plan and within two months advances the proposal for approval to the council. Union, which in turn would have four weeks available, although there may be extensions on the times. If the reasons are not satisfactory, the change request will be rejected.
For the implementation of the plan, Italy has already received 46 billion euros from the Union
In recent months, however, there have been some news. Last May, the European Commission presented the REPower Eu plan, which will come into force in January 2023, with the aim of freeing member states from dependence on Russian gas within a few years. Among other things, one of the proposals is to integrate – and not change – the national recovery plans of European states with additional resources to cope with the geopolitical context created by the war in Ukraine.
According to the European guidelines, the increase in inflation and the energy price increases can be part of the “objective circumstances” for modifying individual projects of the NRP. But the provisions are clear in this regard: in any case the priorities of the plan, including the ecological transition, must remain the same. As well as the reforms, which must be implemented without delay, since they are not influenced by energy prices.
The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella also intervened on the implementation of the NRP. “The timely implementation of the national recovery and resilience plans, which each country is called upon to implement, is essential,” said Mattarella in a message to the Ambrosetti forum in Cernobbio.
The European commissioner for economic affairs Paolo Gentiloni, according to whom Italy’s path is a “race against time”, has opened up to “very limited changes”.
At the moment, Italy has received around 46 billion euros from the European Union to finance the construction of the NRP. In August 2021, almost 25 billion euros arrived in the form of pre-financing, while in April 2022 the first installment of 21 billion was disbursed, which certified the achievement by the government of the 51 objectives, agreed with the Union. centered by the end of last year.
At the end of September, the European Commission will also present its assessment of Italy’s request to receive the 21 billion of the second installment, after the government declared at the end of June that it had reached the 45 deadlines set for the first half of 2022. Now in game there are 55 goals to be achieved by 31 December this year, to secure the third installment of 19 billion and reach 30 percent of the implementation of the NRR, which provides a total of 527 goals by 30 June 2026.
The most important objective to be accomplished concerns the reforms of civil and criminal justice
In recent weeks, the Draghi government has been trying to speed up the steps to be taken over the next three and a half months, before handing over the task to his successor, who could take office before the end of October, if there is a clear majority in parliament after the vote. .
On 2 September the council of ministers met, where the ministries were asked to speed up the roadmap of the plan, to approve about half of the 55 targets for the end of 2022 between September and October. According to Il Sole 24 ore, the government he wants to hit 29 goals in the next month and a half. Among those already achieved, there are the reform of the tax commissions, the adoption of the law for the training of school staff and the approval of urban regeneration plans.
The most important objective to be completed before the handover with the new government concerns the reforms of civil and criminal justice, considered fundamental because they are transversal to all the investments of the plan. The draft bills delegating the two reforms were approved in recent months by parliament, but legislative decrees must be adopted by the end of 2022 to implement the provisions of the two texts.
The next government will therefore have to complete 26 objectives in order not to risk being suspended or refused the disbursement of the next funds. One of the most politically demanding deadlines concerns the annual competition law, published in the official gazette in August.
According to press sources, the Draghi government will bequeath to its successor the approval of 19 decrees to implement the provisions of the law, including the one for the tendering of bathing concessions from 2024. This provision is contained in the law on competition, but the main details on how to implement it are still missing, for example on the compensation to managers who should lose the concession.
In its program, the center-right coalition, which has always been against the tendering of concessions, promises the “protection of the nautical sector and bathing businesses”. Tourism Minister Massimo Garavaglia confirmed that the new government will intervene on the issue.
Widening the gaze, it turns out that the number of implementing decrees to be adopted is quite high. According to government data, at the end of August there were over 400 measures to be approved, of which 54 concerned the PNRR, according to calculations by Openpolis, a foundation that promotes greater transparency in politics.
Times are tight and will become more and more: in the autumn the budget law for 2023, one of the most important laws of the state, must be written, because it details how public money will be spent and for what. If the law were not approved by 31 December, the country would enter the so-called “provisional exercise”, with a limited spending capacity.