The first impact of the Pnrr in Italy is “clearly visible”. This was stated by the president of the EU Ursula von der Leyen at the Bocconi University in Milan (who celebrates 120 years and greets the president Mario Monti, who hands over the baton to his deputy Andrea Sironi) underlining that «the NextGenerationEU fund of 800 billion euro expects to boost and modernize the European economy and forms a perfect union with Italy». “Italy – you add – is receiving over 190 billion euros for investments and reforms, it has already received almost 67 and their impact is starting to be clearly visible”.
Gas, von der Leyen: alia leader on the price cap
Many praises to Italy from the president of the EU commission. «We have proposed a mechanism for correcting the gas market, the so-called ‘price-cap’ and Italy has asked for it right away» underlined von der Leyen, explaining that «it will allow us to prevent excessive price increases, by cutting the manipulation and speculation. «Now – she added – the Member States are discussing how to adapt it to all of Europe»
«On gas, Italy is a perfect example»
Not only. Italy “one of the countries most affected by Russian blackmail on gas” has been defined as “a perfect example” of the ability to “manage and compensate” for the fact that “Putin has cut exports through gas pipelines by 80% in the last 8 months”. In fact, recalled Von der Leyen, Italy was able to “reduce gas imports from about 40 to 10% thanks to an impressive effort to diversify supplies”
‘Europe safe for winter’
But even European gas storages “were 96% filled at the beginning of November and this means that we are safe for this winter” added von der Leyen, underlining that “in parallel we have been working on a series of measures to bring down prices and we have created a solidarity contribution on the extra profits of energy companies that will generate almost 4 billion in revenue here in Italy as early as 2023, to support fragile families and businesses”
«Energy, from EU Repower 9 billion to Italy»
Finally, the president of the European Commission recalled that «the EU RePower is our plan to overcome our dependence on Russia», in terms of energy supplies. “I have just proposed to develop it further to accelerate the green transition throughout Europe”, indicated von der Leyen, specifying that it is “a measure for the short term”. And that «RePower EU means 9 billion euros on clean energy for Italy»