The Italian recovery strategy pleases Europe. The European Commission gives the green light to the disbursement of 21 billion euros under the recovery plan. Therefore, the Mario Draghi recipe in green and digital sauce has been promoted. Therefore, 10 billion euros in guarantees and 11 billion euros in loans will arrive in the tricolor casse, but not immediately. The process now provides for the Council and the EU Parliament to be informed of the decision of the EU executive, which expects to be able to pay the check “at the beginning of April”.
Italy can therefore begin to finance not only the investments that are needed, but also the reforms that Brussels is asking for. The program as a whole is considered ambitious but above all feasible, at least on paper. Because the preliminary assessments, now positive, will be followed by subsequent checks on the state of implementation of the plan.
For now, the green strategy pays off. The Commission expects the redevelopment of buildings in a sustainable way for about 32 million square meters, for overall energy savings of 40% compared to the current situation. In this sense, the extension of the superbonus is good, on which in any case “we will carry out checks” warn the services of the community executive. On the superbonus, Italy is asked to upload all the relevant information to the database, but Italy is also invited to monitor the construction market and avoid infiltration by organized crime. Because in the event of fraud or irregular use, the government could be forced to pay back the money.
For this reason, the Commission welcomes the deployment of all new professional figures for the case. The control room orchestrated by Palazzo Chigi foresees the use of a thousand experts to help local authorities in the implementation of the recovery plan.
The strategy in support of the environment was also welcomed. The effort for better water management, especially in the South, and the reforestation of peripheral areas are rewarded. While on the digitalization front Italy is encouraged to promote that technological revolution in the public administration and in the justice sector, considered perhaps among the most ambitious measures, as well as among the most necessary. Public administration and justice are the sectors on which the EU Commission has been insisting for years, periodically inserting them in the country-specific recommendations, the set of structural reforms that are required of the Member States in the cycle of economic coordination.
Speaking of reforms, attention should be paid to these precisely. With the recovery fund “we not only support investment support, we also support reforms”. Brussels therefore warns Italy. There is confidence in Draghi, however expected to prove the facts.