“Conte did not take into account the historic failure of the national system to make full use of EU funding. Here’s the bug: bulimia of the premier grillino”. After three years and two governments, the problem of spending capacity of Pnrr funds has a manageraccording to Corriere della Sera: Joseph Conte. As the first deadlines to verify the progress of the works financed with European funds approach, panic is spreading among commentators and politicians: we have taken too much money, asked for too many loans. This is the thesis. Today the columnist of the column dedicates an analysis on the front page Courier Francesco Verderami. The title leaves no room for interpretation: “A lot of money, actually too much. The skein of funds that now remains to be unraveled “. With subtitle: “The funding requested by Conte is already excessive for the Draghi government”. Even the Minister of Defense Guido Crosettoduring a face-to-face meeting with the deputy director of La Stampa, he emphasized spending power: “I would recommend taking only the funds that you are sure you will spend”, replied the minister when asked whether Italy had asked too many funds.
What amazes it is the change of attitude and the rush to place all the responsibilities solely on the Conte 2 government. The go-ahead from Brussels to the Italian requests was received with general and widespread satisfaction. “A great opportunity not to be wasted” was the leitmotif of the past two years. Such a tempting opportunity that it could not be left to the Conte government, so much so that the question of funds was at least formally at the basis of the government crisis triggered by Matthew Renzi. And so the “Cristiano Ronaldo” of the Republic took the field, Mario Draghi, ready, as they say, to “ground” the Pnrr projects after reviewing, in truth without major changes, the version of the Pnrr developed by the previous executive. Then the baton passed to Giorgia Meloni, which has now governed for 6 months with Minister Giorgetti, placed in the Economy precisely to ensure continuity with the work of the previous executive. According to Verderami, Conte made a mistake because “he did not take into account the historic inability of the national system to make full use of EU funding”. The analysis then concludes: “Here is the bug”. In fact she was aware of it. In fact, the arrival of the funds should have been accompanied by the strengthening of the administrative machinery also through the hiring of new personnel but on this front little or nothing has been done from who came later.
The notices have been few and poorly conceived, the result is that the public administration has remained unguarded in the face of the new and onerous tasks assigned. The management of the former minister of the Pa Renato Brunetta, now promoted by Meloni to the presidency of the Cnel, has been disastrous from this point of view. At least on this point there should have been some sharing of responsibilities. But no. According to Courier “Draghi could not completely disavow Conte, since the M5S was the majority party in Parliament”. Yet in September 2022 Draghi explained “What can be reviewed of the Pnrr is what it hasn’t been banned yet but since most of the calls has been made there is little to review. However, I would avoid an ideological approach to the question”. It was also and above all the Draghi government that made the announcements, which, as can be seen from the words of the former president, would still have been able to slow down if it had wanted to. The Meloni government also continued to make announcements, which certainly got on a running train but to which the Courier removes any responsibility because the problems were “inherited because the executive of national unity could not correct them”.
In the evening comes the reply of Joseph Conte. “Unfortunately the government on the Pnrr he doesn’t have clear ideas. There are two-three-four lines of thought: some say that we shouldn’t take too many, some say that loans are a rip off, some that we can’t spend. We have launched a collaboration proposal, which has not yet been accepted. If they are not capable, I have to say it now, we cannot afford to miss out on the opportunity for the country’s economic, social and cultural relaunch. We have proposals and solutions to put forward at the table”, says the former prime minister.
How are the rules? If a country starts a project with Brussels’ money but doesn’t meet the timetable, it is still up to them to complete it. It is true that Italy is the country that has made the most use of the funds allocated available from Brussels, especially to those in the form of loans which will have to be returned even if paying particularly advantageous interest: Rome has achieved everything 191 billion euros, of which 122 billion as loans and the others 69 as transfers which must not be returned. The two economies more immediately comparable to ours, France and Spainhave made much more conservative choices. Paris stopped at 39 billion, almost all in the form of transfers. Madrid has applied for 70 billion euros, also in this case almost all transfers. Germany, which could count on much larger resources and budget margins to deal with the pandemic, limited itself to 25 billion, without any loans. But all of that has been known for almost three years. For the entire duration of the Draghi government, no one had questioned the great opportunity of such an ambitious plan. Now, with deadlines approaching and the risk of bankruptcy, those who obtained those funds end up in the dock.