The EU Council, the Union’s decision-making body, has given the green light to the changes made in Italy to the targets for requesting the fourth installment of the Pnrr. Italy’s amended plan “covers 10 measures, including incentives for energy efficiency under the so-called “Superbonus”, the increase in childcare facilities, the development of the space and film industry and transport sustainable”, announces the EU Council. The request for modification of the fourth instalment it had been submitted by Italy on 11 July and has already received the Commission’s yes.
“This morning, together with my European affairs counterparts gathered in Brussels for the General Affairs Council, we adopted the decision that definitively accepts the requests for modification, presented by the Italian Government, of some objectives relating to the fourth payment request of the Pnrr. This is a very important result which rewards the work carried out in recent months and which we welcome with great satisfaction”, stated the Minister for European Affairs, the South, cohesion policies and the Pnrr Raffaele Fitto. The third installment should be paid to Italy at the end of October 18.5 billion euros while the fourth is expected at the end of 2023. The funds available to Italy amount to a total of 192 billion euros, 122 billion in the form of loans and 69 billion in transfers. The first two installments, already paid, amount to 45 billion euros. The first, of 24 billion, dates back to August 2021, the second of 21 billion last November.
Today the EU Commission adopted the second annual report on the implementation of tool for recovery and resilience at the centre of NextGenerationEU. The report shows the progress made in implementing the Recovery Fund: so far, the Commission has disbursed 153.4 billion euros for the implementation of the investments and agreed reforms. The report highlights the high level of transparency of the instrument and informs on the Commission’s actions to strengthen the audit and control of Recovery. The overall implementation of the Recovery “is firmly underway”, underlines the spokeswoman Veerle Nuytys. “The implementation of the Italian Pnrr is underwaybut with a growing risk of delays. Italy has presented three payment requests, which correspond to 151 stages and objectives of the plan and which involve a total disbursement of 42 billion euros (referring to the first two payment requests presented)”.
This is what we read in the chapter dedicated to Italy of the second annual EU report on the implementation of the Recovery Fund. “Proceeding quickly with the implementation of the plan and the negotiation of its modification is essential due to the temporary nature of the Recovery in force until 2026,” the document continues.
