The President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, will be on a mission to Rome on 22 June to express Brussels’ opinion on the Italian national recovery and resilience plan (Pnrr). The trip is part of the tour of the capitals planned by von der Leyen to deliver the Commission’s opinion to the heads of government. The Italian stage should be officially announced at the end of this week, close to the first visits of the EU leader. The “Recovery tour” will start on Wednesday 16 June, with stops in Spain and Portugal, on the 17th it will be in Greece and Denmark, while on the 18th it will move to Luxembourg.
The green light to the NRPs and the next steps for European funds
The tour by von der Leyen will mark the Commission’s formal green light to the plans submitted by individual countries to have access to their share of funds from Next Generation Eu, the 750 billion euro maxi-fund for the relaunch of the continental economy from the Covid crisis . Governments were required to send an investment program to Brussels by 30 April, even if it is an indicative deadline: the majority of countries sent their documents between May and June and Italy itself formally submitted the PNRR with one day late.
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The community executive would have two months to express its assessment, but it is accelerating to get the first funds to be disbursed by July of the current year. With the Next Generation Eu scheme, the Union will issue common debt for the first time in its history, with the balance expected to be in 2058. Italy owns one of the most significant shares of resources arriving from Brussels, with a package of over 200 billion which includes the 191.5 billion allocated to Italy by the Recovery and resilience facility (the recovery and resilience device, the architrave of NEGU with a fund of 672.5 billion euro). The guidelines established by Brussels provide that each country must allocate a share of at least 37% of resources to the ecological transition and 20% to digitalization, disposing of the rest of the finances in favor of other sectors.